Sebastiaan Laurenceau leads the rollout of Vesper’s Marketplace, a new dairy trading platform, working closely with buyers and suppliers to bring the platform to life. In this interview, he explains how the product works in practice, the challenges of onboarding in a traditional industry, and what early adopters are saying.
1. Over 100 companies are already trading on the Marketplace. What convinced them to switch from traditional methods?
Two things: transparency and efficiency. In a volatile market, quotes for the same product can vary by hundreds of euros. A transparent marketplace narrows those spreads and ensures fairer prices. Secondly, our platform is far more efficient than managing quotes through endless emails, calls, or WhatsApps. It saves procurement teams significant time while giving them a complete view of the market.
2. Onboarding customers in such a traditional industry is notoriously slow. How do you manage to do it within a week?
We’ve streamlined the process by keeping it aligned with how the industry already operates. Buyers can only purchase from their approved suppliers, so there’s no change to compliance. The main bottleneck is receiving the approved supplier lists from buyers. Once we have that, we set up their account exactly as required, and they can start trading within 24 hours.
If either side wants to expand their approved lists, here’s how the platform facilitates new connections: everyone can see all bids and offers anonymously, you’ll see market activity and volumes, but only identification numbers like “Buyer #47” or “Seller #23.” When you spot an attractive opportunity from someone outside your current network, you contact us to request an introduction. We facilitate that connection, but only with both parties’ explicit consent.
3. How do you handle the trust factor? Procurement managers often prefer long-standing relationships.
Trust is built into the design. Buyers can only trade with their approved suppliers, and sellers only with their approved buyers. We go down to the factory code level to eliminate any ambiguity. At the same time, trades remain anonymous on the platform, giving companies confidence while preserving confidentiality.
4. Liquidity is critical in marketplaces. How are you building it?
It’s the classic chicken-and-egg problem: buyers want to see offers before placing bids, and sellers want to see bids before making offers. We’ve addressed this by bringing liquidity providers onto the platform and by educating customers on the benefits of using it more frequently. Liquidity breeds liquidity, and we’re already seeing a snowball effect as adoption grows.
5. What’s been your biggest challenge in launching in such a traditional industry?
Two things: building liquidity and changing mindsets. Some buyers and sellers still believe opacity works in their favor. Our job is to show them that transparency leads to better, more predictable decisions for everyone involved.
Transparency solves two critical inefficiencies: time and reach. Time-wise, buyers and sellers meet faster at the correct market price; no more days of back-and-forth negotiations when everyone can see real-time market conditions, and deals close in minutes.
In terms of reach, transparency expands everyone’s network exponentially. Sellers instantly connect with multiple qualified buyers they’ve never accessed before, while buyers discover new, reliable suppliers. This broader network creates more competition, benefiting buyers through better pricing and sellers through increased demand.
Education is an ongoing part of building trust and adoption, but once buyers and sellers experience these time savings and expanded opportunities, the value becomes undeniable.
6. How do you train procurement teams who have been doing manual price discovery for decades?
The platform is designed to be intuitive, so training is straightforward. Effectively, they can still do the same things they’ve always done, but now quicker. We’ve built it to mimic and optimize the current offline workflow rather than forcing them to learn something completely new.
The challenge is embedding it into daily routines. Many teams are used to email tendering or manual processes, so adoption takes time. But every month we see more usage as customers recognize the efficiency gains.
7. Have there been challenges on the technical side of building the marketplace?
Yes, every buyer has unique purchasing processes, and we need a tool that works for everyone, not just one client. That means rapid iteration and careful prioritization. For example, we initially restricted trading to one hour a week to concentrate liquidity. That was too rigid, so we extended trading hours and added smart notifications. Now buyers and sellers have full flexibility while still benefiting from counterparty matching.
8. Walk us through a typical trading day before and after the Vesper Marketplace.
Traditionally, a buyer would spend Monday morning emailing or calling dozens of suppliers to request quotes, often with a deadline for decisions. If you had 40 suppliers, that could mean 40 separate conversations. With the marketplace, buyers simply post a bid once, which goes to all approved suppliers. Sellers respond directly on the platform, at their own convenience.
The result is a much more transparent, efficient process. Instead of deals happening behind closed doors, transactions are visible (anonymously) to all participants, helping to build a clearer market view. If everyone trades this way, the industry benefits from a far more transparent and efficient market.
9. What feedback have you received from users so far?
Feedback has been very positive. While not every buyer uses the marketplace for every purchase yet, those who have, such as Leguna GmbH, report real benefits. In their case, our platform saved procurement teams hours by enabling direct connections with approved suppliers. And as liquidity continues to grow, trading hours lengthen, and user familiarity deepens, the feedback keeps getting stronger.
10. What motivated you to take this role and lead the marketplace rollout?
It was a natural fit given my background and network in the dairy industry. I enjoy being on the front lines with customers, learning how they purchase, and helping shape a product that could transform the industry. I believe we’re at a turning point: volatility has frustrated many in the market, and transparency is the solution they’ve been waiting for. Being part of that change is incredibly exciting.
Want to know the strategic vision behind all this?
Hear from Alexander Sterk, Vesper’s founder and CEO, on why he built a marketplace for dairy trading here. He shares the vision that sparked the idea, explains why the timing was finally right after years of building trust in the industry, and reveals his predictions for how digital trading will reshape dairy by 2030.
