Yesterday, French consulting firm ON-X Group announced the acquisition of Chain Accelerator, a Paris-based blockchain start-up incubator. ON-X provides digital solutions to companies and can now offer its clients blockchain services.
Founded more than 30 years ago, ON-X has some high-profile clients, including Orange, Societe Generale, EDF, BNP Paribas, Total, and Thales, among others.
“The strong complementary skills between ON-X Group and Chain Accelerator are all opportunities to create value for the whole of our expertise, in particular for cybersecurity, the cloud, infrastructures and digital services,” said Louis Polette, founder and CEO of ON-X Groupe.
Chain Accelerator was established about two years ago and was a co-organizer of the Paris Blockchain Week Summit, which saw 2,500 participants. In addition to organizing the Summit, Chain Accelerator organizes other events such as meetups, hackathons, talks, networking and PR events.
Plus it provides blockchain consulting and operates a training academy. Chain Accelerator has been working with Blockstream, Tezos, and Wanchain and is a certified training body for Tezos blockchain.
Tezos is one of the leading public blockchains and has a French co-founder Arthur Breitman, who is also a mentor to Chain Accelerator. The protocol itself is written in the OCAML language, which was developed and primarily used in France.
“The development of the Blockchain ecosystem is a priority for the government. This revolutionary technology promises to modernize both our businesses, our economy but also society,” said Jean Michel Mis, a French politician who co-founded the French Federation of Blockchain Professionals. “France should welcome the joining together of two leading companies in their market, involved in French Tech, and which aim to become a major international player in the Blockchain.”
The French Tech is a government program to bring together start-ups and other stakeholders to foster their development.
Meanwhile, France’s central bank recently tested a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC).
