European blockchain partnership program BlockStart has announced five startups that have made it through to the Pilot stage of its accelerator offering. The scheme is run by early-stage VC Bright Pixel, innovation management consultancy CIVITTA, and tech founder community F6S. Funded by Horizon 2020, it aims to establish mutually beneficial partnerships between blockchain solution providers and end-user small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in the fintech, retail and technology sectors.
In selecting the five startups, BlockStart promoted a six-month immersive acceleration scheme for ten DLT startups. Five of the firms, 2bSmart, Datarella, Infidia, Kedeon and Rexs.io made it to the Pilot stage. This stage enables the five startups to test, validate and implement their products with end-user SMEs in BlockStart’s network.
2bSmart is a Dutch startup focused on providing educational services to organizations on IoT sensors and smart contracts technology. The company offers interactive workshop simulations to other organizations on the business process of using smart contracts. While participating in BlockStart, alongside three other firms, it developed SMARTYS, a prototype to monitor and control the indoor office climate through IoT sensor smart contract technology. The sensor data is stored on the blockchain for verification.The smart contract will issue certificates and provide access to the rooms based on the sensor measurements and pre-set conditions.
German-based Datarella established in 2013, is the “oldest” of the five selected startups. It focuses on providing enterprise blockchain solutions specializing in supply chain transparency. With BlockStart’s aid, Datarella developed Track and Trust, a blockchain solution for anchoring and tracking valuable goods in supply chains.
Based in North Macedonia, the third selected startup, Infidia is an invoice financing startup. It focuses on supporting small, ethical and fast growing businesses through seamless financing. Considering that only 18% of SMEs get approval for credit lines and €450 million ($530 million) in invoice frauds per year, Infidia’s project with BlockStart uses blockchain to validate invoices and address the lack of trust between banks and smaller entities.
Kedeon is a Latvian startup addressing food waste in the supply chain. The company’s goal is “to provide a sensor mesh network platform that enables tracking of the food supply chain with immutable recordings” to increase transparency with consumers and decrease food spoilage in the supply chain. As part of BlockStart, it expanded its previous solution focused on last-mile deliveries (non-refrigerated trucks, personal cars, scooters, etc.) trackability.
Polish Rexs.io is a “Data Trust Company”. It creates a trust layer for existing data that verifies the information has not been modified. The service can be applied to any type of data, including images, videos and IoT streams. It also worked on improving its existing service in the scope of BlockStart.
The Blockstart program aims to support a total of 60 tech startups and 60 end-user SMEs through mentoring, networking, and a total of €795,000 ($937,000) in grants without taking equity.
