Each year, the World Economic Forum (WEF) crowns 100 growth-stage startups as Technology Pioneers and this year was no different. This year marks the 20th class of the WEF's Technology Pioneers and quite possibly the class with the most blockchain startup included so far.
According to the WEF, Tech Pioneers are chosen based on how their work is impacting their country and their community. These firms come from diverse groups that stretch beyond traditional technology hubs, and they work on a wide range of problems including in areas such as carbon capture, alternative meat, circular economies, food security and financial access.
It is, therefore, no surprise that the blockchain and crypto communities have been bursting with pride to see that not one, not two.. but six blockchain startup companies were selected for this year's class. Who are they? Keep reading to find out.
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The six blockchain startups in this year's class of WEF Technology Pioneers, presented in no particular order, are:
The Blockchain startup:
Headquarters: Palo Alto, USA
Key executive(s): Elizabeth Stark, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Year founded: 2016
Value proposition: "Why is it so easy to send a photo in any application today but so hard to send value? Anyone can build upon Lightning's technology for instant, global payments. What the internet did for information, Lightning is doing for money."
Lightning Labs is building a programmable financial layer for the internet with fast, scalable bitcoin transactions. Lightning is like a credit card network for bitcoin, enabling instant, high-volume transactions with fees far lower than credit cards. The company is developing the Lightning software infrastructure along with financial products that make it easier to send and receive funds on Lightning.
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
Key executive(s): James Smith, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Year founded: 2013
Value proposition: "Elliptic's mission is to protect businesses from financial crime in cryptocurrencies. Our product offering enables banks, crypto-exchanges, and other kinds of blockchain startup to provide trusted services critical to the successful growth and adoption of cryptocurrencies in the industry."
Elliptic was born out of a vision for an open financial system enabled by crypto-assets. Today, it is a global leader in crypto-asset risk management solutions, safeguarding businesses against financial crime and enabling them to grow with confidence. Its suite of products and team of experts protect companies, banks and financial institutions against crime, sanctions breaches and other risks, equipping them with the insights to mitigate risk, build trust and ensure compliance.
Headquarters: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Key executive(s): Sebastian Serrano, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer
Year founded: 2013
Value proposition: "At Ripio, we focus on building access to the new digital economy, offering real alternatives to traditional banking solutions to reach all segments of the population and widen financial inclusion."
Ripio is building blockchain-based financial products for over six years. As one of the first crypto companies in Latin America, Ripio focuses on developing and strengthening the new digital economy, offering financial alternatives to traditional banking solutions to reach all segments of the population. It has a team of 100 professionals in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Spain, with the objective to expand services throughout Latin America.
Headquarters: George Town, United Kingdom
Key executive(s): Sergey Nazarov
Year founded: 2017
Value proposition: "Chainlink connects blockchains with all of the world's data and infrastructure. We enable blockchain smart contracts to securely and reliably interoperate with real-world data and enterprise systems. This in order to empower everyone's full economic potential."
Chainlink (LINK) is a decentralized oracle network that enables smart contracts to securely access off-chain data feeds, web application programming interfaces and traditional bank payments. It provides highly secure and reliable oracles to large enterprises (Google, Oracle and SWIFT) and smart contract development teams such as Polkadot/Substrate, Synthetix, Loopring, Aave, OpenLaw and Conflux.
Headquarters: Copenhagen, Denmark
Key executive(s): Rune Christensen, Chief Executive Officer
Year founded: 2018
Value proposition: "The vision behind MakerDAO is to create a decentralized, transparent and accessible platform to level the economic playing field for everybody around the world."
MakerDAO is a decentralized organization dedicated to bringing financial stability and transparency to the world economy. This blockchain startup create an inclusive platform for economic empowerment and unlocks access to the global financial marketplace for all. MakerDAO enables the generation of Dai, an unbiased currency and leading decentralized stablecoin. Dai eliminates volatility through an autonomous system of smart contracts. As well as through decentralized community governance.
Headquarters: Hong Kong SAR
Key executive(s): Jim Procanik, Executive Director
Year founded: 2016
Value proposition: "Veridium Labs provides a solution to companies and consumers interested in calculating and offsetting their environmental impacts using blockchain technology."
Veridium is working to provide a solution that goes well beyond climate change and sustainability to transform the way natural capital is priced and consumed. Led by the founders of one of the leading global carbon credit producers, Veridium is introducing a tokenized marketplace for environmental assets. Including carbon credits, together with an integrated technology solution for corporate tracking of their environmental impacts.
Did you know? You can now invest in Chainlink's native token LINK on Remitano.
What are other altcoins you can invest in? Learn more:
