The benefits of blockchain technology are breaking out of the fintech realm and overflowing into a wide array of sectors. From fighting water scarcity, to smart irrigation, blockchain has the potential to boost technologies that not only improve people’s day-to-day lives, but also create an impact for vulnerable people across the world.
Meet Blockchers
Blockchers is a new project, founded in 2019, that supports the growth of future and emerging DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) technologies, specifically Blockchain. They select the most promising startups in this area, give them support, up to €50K direct equity-free funding, and also connect them with traditional SMEs, to carry the benefits and opportunities of these new technologies further.
The unique EU-funded Horizon2020 aid program is co-ordinated by 4 key partners, each bringing their own expertise to the table: Innomine Group (Hungary), Zabala Innovation Consulting (Spain), Frankfurt School of Blockchain Center (FSBC) (Germany) and ALASTRIA (Spain). In particular, Innomine facilitates mentorship workshops and events for the SMEs, providing guidance and knowledge that helps them successfully develop and finally land the programme funding.
Meet their 4 stellar food & water blockchain startups
Having passed through a rigorous selection process, these top 4 startups are leading innovations in their area. Maybe you’re an investor looking for your next project, or a blockchain startup looking for your next partner; either way, check out these cool teams below:
Vottun – Founded in 2018 and based between Barcelona and LA, Vottun prides itself on being the WordPress for Blockchain. Vottun’s interoperable architecture is built to make it easy to develop blockchain applications without the need to understand much of the underlying blockchain technology. How is this relevant for the food & water sector? Well their technology has already been used to show the traceability of Spanish foods, such as fruits and eggs. In this unique case, they have helped to prove the organic nature of one producer’s eggs, and reduce fraud.
Asvin – Founded in 2018 in Stuttgart, this startup aims to bring trust and security to the Software Lifecycle in Internet of Things. Who is it for? Developers, Vendors and Operators can organize and monitor their Software Lifecycles of IoT devices, allowing them to track firmware from certification, deployment, and distribution towards operation on IoT devices. In particular, the startup’s technology has already been used to analyse and present the real expiry date of foods, showing its freshness beyond a printed date label, for FreshIndex.
Vestigia – Founded in Sevilla, this startup’s team has more than 20 years’ experience in industrial sector, health and agri-food, and uses their deep knowledge about processes and operations within global supply chain works on their solution. Using blockchain technology, the company has built a scalable platform that can be adapted to any organization, no matter its size. In fact, it’s already be used to track the traceability of water use for the growth of strawberries, tomatoes and horticulture.
Apio – Founded in 2014 in Italy, Apio is a Latin word meaning ‘Establish a Communication’. Their flagship product, ‘Trusty’ is on a mission to show the ‘incredible story’ behind products, overall improve trust and engagement with customers. Via a QR-CODE, customers can scan and find the story of the product, find certification information, and can know how this product was brought to them. So far, they’ve already helped prove the traceability of pasta, and other foods.
These 4 innovative SMEs were selected by an international group of Blockchers technology and Startup experts, consisting of 3 juries in June 2020. Therefore, they are eligible and might move on to the next – implementation phase – which started in July and will close by the end of November 2020.