10 Startups Leveraging Blockchain Technology in India
The concept of blockchain technology was formulated in 2008. However it is safe to say that it remained as an area of interest only for virtual currency enthusiasts until recently. 2016 became the year when it became a buzzword. At present, several large technology and financial corporates have ventured into R&D of the tech that mostly startups saw an opportunity in.
Before we jump to the list of Indian companies who are finding their own ways to innovate in this area, let’s take a quick look at what blockchain actually is.
What is Blockchain Technology?
A blockchain can be described as a share, secure ledger of records, that are arranged in batches called blocks. These blocks exist as a continuously-growing list, and cannot be altered. Each block references and identifies the previous block, thus creating an unbroken chain.
In simple terms, think of a database that automatically updates itself whenever a change is made. And this database is distributed over a network of individual systems called nodes. Each node maintains a copy of the block. Hence in case of updating, retrieving or validating any data, all of its past records could be obtained easily.
Below is an image by Blockgeeks describing how it works
Blockchain Technology India
As also shown in the image above, blockchain technology is mostly being used in virtual currency transactions. Virtual currencies, such as bitcoins, don’t quite have defined legal guidelines or regulations governing their exchange. And since have gained substantial popularity, blockchain technology is the best available way to ensure transactions happen securely in a completely anti-fraudulent manner.
Now since no block can be altered, the transaction trail cannot be erased. Because of this reason, the technology is finding use cases in several other areas as well, including financial services, retail, trading, legal, healthcare, and pretty much any business that involves record keeping. The video by BBC given below, shows how some of the companies are trying to utilise the technology.
Startups Working on Blockchain Technology in India
Coinsecure
Coinsecure calls itself ‘India’s Bitcoin Exchange’. It’s a real time trading platform for bitcoins, and offers a wallet to store the same. It offers blockchain API to developers, and had partnered with global blockchain money transfer network, OKLink, earlier this year, to bring blockchain driven remittances in India.
Founders: Mohit Kalra, Benson Samuel
Founding Year: 2014
Headquarters: Delhi
EzyRemit
EzyRemit is working on building various enterprise products using blockchain as the backbone. Its solutions portfolio include cross border remittance, Digital identity on blockchain, Gift cards wallet on blockchain and Digital certificate on blockchain.
Founder: Vishal Anand
Founding Year: 2015
Headquarters: Bangalore
Hashcove
Hashcove is the blockchain arm of 5 year old FinTech firm uTrade Solutions. The company has built multiple products with blockchain tech at the core, including – uClear, KYChain and HashDegree.
Founder: Kunal Nandwani
Founding Year: 2016
Headquarters: Chandigarh
KrypC
KrypC is a startup working to help enterprises adopt blockchain technology for their own respective processes. It offers custom solutions for businesses, and offers training on the tech as well. The company has built a proprietary framework for developers and analysts, to implement blockchain tech with less efforts and time.
Founders: Ravi Jagannathan, Karthik Balasubramanian
Founding Year: 2016
Headquarters: Bangalore
Primechain Technologies
Primechain is one a mission of “building blockchains for a better world”. It has 3 products in its portfolio, including – D.A.V.E or Data Authentication and Verification Engine, a private-blockchain powered technology platform for authentication, verification and storage of electronic records etc.
Founder: Shinam Arora
Founding Year: 2016
Headquarters: Pune
Psi Phi Global
Psi Phi Global aims to revolutionise the digital economy with blockchain technology, and is primarily focusing on three sectors – healthcare, telecom and supply chain. It offers one product at the moment, a Cryptolocker to Store and Share documents on blockchain using a set of APIs. It is working on Digi Rail – A Multi-party shared database to optimise supply-chain data flow.
Founders: Gaurav Kumar, Harsh Pokharna and Aditya Prasad
Founding Year: 2016
Headquarters: Faridabad
RecordsKeeper
RecordsKeeper is a decentralized, incorruptible and unchangeable storage facility for digital documents built on Blockchain for record keeping. The startup aims to replace the cloud storage technologies like Dropbox or Google Drive. It offers a SaaS version for enterprises as well.
Founder: Toshendra Sharma
Founding Year: 2015
Headquarters: Gurgaon
Signzy
Signzy is leveraging blockchain technology to build APIs for multiple use cases. It offers facilities like document storage, signing, validation etc., all using the same tech. It offers a digital on-boarding solution for banks, NBFCs and other financial institutions.
Founders: Ankit Ratan, Arpit Ratan and Ankur Pandey
Founding Year: 2015
Headquarters: Bangalore
Trestor
Trestor is a technology startup involved in multiple different projects, one of which is in blockchain technology. Trestor offers users to make transaction using its own virtual currency called ‘Trests’. It transfers the Trests through its owb blockchain and decentralised network of nodes.
Founder: Kunal Dixit
Founding Year: 2015
Headquarters: Chandigarh
XS
GetXS is building a way to protect one’s digital identity by creating a unique identifier for each user on public blockchain infrastructure. The firm aims to eliminate the need of users to remember multiple passwords by giving them a unique digital key, that can be used at every platform.
Founder: Hitesh Malviya
Founding Year: 2016
Headquarters: Mumbai
We haven’t included startups specifically focussed on bitcoin handling and trading, even though they might be using the same tech too. Also, there are a few service firms which offer assistance to startups and enterprises building products based on blockchain technology such as MindDeft and Auxesis. If there is any firm which we missed, please share in the comments below, we’ll update the list.