London Startups Leading the Global Blockchain Industry
“London Startups Leading the Global Blockchain Industry” by Judy Smith
Known as one of the most vibrant “hotspots” for blockchain startups, London has been at the forefront of the crypto revolution. Apart from many interesting crypto-native projects, we also see many companies innovating around everything needed to push the technology to the mainstream.
While the world patiently waits for the bitcoin price to reach new highs, we look at some of the most promising projects based in and operate from London. To that end, we give a short introduction of the company and look at its unique product. If any of these companies interest you, make sure to check their “Careers” pages, as most are actively hiring to expand their teams. Let’s delve in.
Blockchain.com
Possibly the most popular online cryptocurrency wallet, Blockchain.com has been growing rapidly and is now known as one of the most successful tech startups in the UK. While you may see a minimalistic app to check your crypto balances, the company is digging into several B2C and B2B areas, building financial services and infrastructure to enhance storage solutions and transparency in the future.
Being one of the first companies in the space, as it was released in 2014, the company benefited from early mover’s advantage, building their bridge as they walked on it. They released a platform known as Blockchain Explorer, enabling anyone to track and confirm transactions on the blockchain.
As of late, the company has also announced a whitelisting process for anyone that might be interested in their upcoming crypto debit card. So, by all means, it seems like a SaaS product will end up becoming the bank of the future.
Thought Machine
First released in 2014, Thought Machine is a blockchain-based banking engine wrapped into a software product. Known as OS, their system is easily adaptable to new and changing regulations in the space, enhances security through blockchain technology, and can scale to support millions of users easily. The company was unknown in its early days, but since 2016 has been making front-page news in UK media. Currently, they have raised a staggering $107M from industry-relevant capital firms and are looking to expand their product in the years to come.
Everledger
Anti Money Laundering and fraud prevention have been a major focus point for investors and promising startups in the crypto space. As the demand for crypto grows, so does the sophistication of cybercriminals and users who use exchanges to “wash” their money clean. But that is only one aspect of it. Blockchain technology can improve traceability and authentication of physical products across the globe, making transactions safer and easier to verify.
Everledger is leading in this department, strengthening the core foundations of user and transaction verifications related to diamonds. As a result, the company can track ownership of diamonds, spot insurance fraud, and even plan to proceed into other luxury markets. The company has received a total funding of $31M and has been working on its product since 2015.
Argent
Probably less popular than Blockchain.com, Argent is a decentralized wallet for Ethereum storage. By Ethereum, we don’t only mean the cryptocurrency but also everything tied to the addresses. This includes ENS names, NFTs, ERC-20 tokens, DeFi, and much more. Currently, the wallet is available for mobile devices (iOS and Android), with rumours of expansions coming soon.
The team started the project in 2017, has received funding from many large crypto funds, and the total amount of capital amounts to $16M. Currently, the team behind the wallet is planning to release a Layer 2 solution further to improve transaction cost and deliverability on the network. They are also actively promoting Sweepstakes content to increase awareness for their product, an offer that might be of interest to those who wish to earn some free crypto-related prizes.
Wrapping Up
Development in the crypto space is constant, and tech hubs like London stay at the forefront. So while our pool of interest was relatively small given the context of the industry, we can expect to see even more projects from ambitious founders making a start from the heart of this vibrant city.
Moving forward, it might be interesting to look across the UK to discover more exciting businesses and even participate as an early user to benefit from gracious rewards potentially. After all, we are still at the early stages of this market, and anyone can make it big if they know where to look and what to ask.
Finally, note that the information in this article is only meant to depict the state of the markets and their development. These posts are not intended to provide any sort of investment advice or trading tips.
