Here are 6 blockchain startups to watch out for in 2021
The blockchain sector is still in its formative phase in India, but is seeing rapid development with multiple initiatives taken by the government, corporates, and startups alike.
According to Grand View Research, the global blockchain technology market size, which was valued at $ 3.67 billion in 2020, is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 82.4 percent from 2021 to 2028. It is expected to reach $ 7.59 billion by 2024.
In fact, blockchain technology’s decentralisation and cryptographic hashing make it a legitimate disruptor for industries like payments, cybersecurity, and healthcare.
The Indian blockchain space has also seen rapid development in the past few years, with multiple initiatives taken by the government and corporates alike.
According to Research and Markets, 55 percent of Indian businesses are adopting blockchain technology. Last year, Nasscom reported that India’s public sector is taking up more than 40 blockchain initiatives.
The Indian startup ecosystem has also seen the rise of several blockchain startups, some of which are also making themselves known in the global markets.
Here are six blockchain startups to watch out for in 2021.
Polygon
Polygon cofounders (L to R) Anurag Arjun, Sandeep Nailwal and Jaynti Kanani
Formerly called Matic Network, Bengaluru-based blockchain technology startup Polygon was founded in 2017 by three Indian software engineers Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun. Serbia's Mihalio Bjelic later came on board as the co-founder.
In May 2021, US-based tech billionaire and serial startup investor Mark Cuban made an undisclosed investment in the startup.
So far, Polygon’s scaling solutions have seen widespread adoption, with over 250 decentralised applications, 76 million transactions, and 7,90,000 unique users.
In the last week of May 2021, it released the first version of its much-anticipated Polygon SDK, which allows developers to deploy Ethereum-compatible chains at speed using an in-built EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) and a set of pluggable modules.
KoineArth
Praphul Chandra, Founder & CEO, KoineArth
Founded in 2018 by Praphul Chandra, KoineArth is a Bengaluru-based startup that focuses on solutions for the supply chain segment. It is building an end-to-end enterprise platform with blockchain at its core.
It has developed the ready-to-use marketsN platform, which enables solutions for inventory visibility, invoice financing, and contract enforcement.
Besides focusing on product development, KoineArth has been tying up with financial institutions because a key incentive for putting verifiable and immutable records on a blockchain is easing of access to finance.
In March 2021, the startup had raised $1.8 million in a Pre-Series A round, led by YourNest Venture Capital.
Instadapp
Hyderabad-based blockchain startup Instadapp builds a middleware layer in the decentralised finance (DeFi) space — a blockchain-based form of finance that does not have central financial intermediaries.
The startup aggregates major protocols using a smart wallet layer and bridge contracts, making it easy for users to make the best decision about assets and execute previously complex transactions seamlessly.
Co-founded by brothers — Sowmay Jain and Samyak Jain, Instadapp is also planning to launch its in-house governance token called INST.
In June 2021, the startup had raised $10 million in a round led by Standard Crypto, along with Yearn Founder Andre Cronje, DeFi Alliance, and Longhash Ventures.
In October 2019, Indtadapp had raised $2.4 million from Pantera Capital with other investors, including Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan, Coinbase Ventures, IDEO Colab, Robot Ventures, and Kyber Network’s Loi Luu.
Covalent
Co-founded by Ganesh Swami and Levi Aul in 2017, is a Vancouver-based startup providing a unified API bringing visibility to billions of blockchain data points.
Based out of Canada, the startup looks to solve infrastructure problems inhibiting blockchain adoption by bridging the world of centralised databases with the new world of distributed blockchain technologies.
So far, Covalent has worked with over 100 projects and indexed billions of rich blockchain transactions, including every transaction since genesis for over 12 top blockchains such as Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Polkadot, Elrond, Near, and more, Ganesh says.
In March 2021, the blockchain data provider raised $2 million in a strategic funding round led by Hashed Ventures with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Binance Labs, and others. The token round brings Covalent's total funding to date to $5.1 million.
EPNS
Mumbai-based Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS) sends a decentralised DeFi notification protocol (smart contract), which any dApps or services can use to send notifications to the wallet addresses of Ethereum.
Founded in January 2020 by Harsh Rajat and Richa Joshi, the platform allows services to send notifications to the wallets. But apart from just notifications, users also earn from receiving the notifications.
Since the encrypted data of these notifications is stored on the blockchain (directly or indirectly), it not only enables the team to send push notifications out to mobile or tablets but essentially to any centralised or decentralised carriers.
In December 2020, the startup had raised $750,000 seed investment from prolific angel investors and HNIs.
BlockSurvey
BlockSurvey Team
Bengaluru-based is a decentralised blockchain-powered data collection platform. Launched in January 2020 by Wilson Bright and Raja Ilayaperumal, BlockSurvey enables businesses and individuals to create no-code online forms and surveys and collect data based on anonymity.
The company turned cash positive within six months and expects to break even in the next nine months.
Incubated by Afthonia Lab, BlockSurvey currently has 500+ active members and is used by individuals and companies. The total data downloaded using their services is more than 100GB until now.
Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta
