The seed investor High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) finances tech start-ups with growth potential and has supported more than 700 start-ups since 2005. With the launch of its fourth fund, HTGF now has about 1.4 billion euros under management. Its team of experienced investment managers and start-up experts support young companies with expertise, entrepreneurial spirit and passion. HTGF’s focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digital tech, industrial tech, life sciences, chemistry and related business areas. To date, external investors have injected about 5 billion euros of capital into the HTGF portfolio via more than 2,000 follow-on financing rounds. In addition, HTGF has already successfully sold shares in more than 170 companies. Fund investors in this public-private partnership include the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, KfW Capital and 45 companies from a wide range of industries. Fund investors in this public-private partnership include the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, KfW Capital and 45 companies from a wide range of industries.

HTGF | High-Tech Gruenderfonds

Spherity

Spherity builds applications, giving any entity a unique identifier linked to a digital twin with access to a scalable and self-sovereign transaction layer.

Spherity offers a range of enterprise-focused decentralized identity and supply chain management solutions. These include 1) digital wallet solutions for Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Supplier (KYS) process automation, 2) credentialing services for real-time authentication of trading partners, and 3) a digital product passport that enables compliance with global provenance, product passport regulations, and AI regulations.

Bringing the benefits of blockchain to the enterprise

Enterprise Blockchain Solutions

Dortmund-based Spherity secures €2.5 million to advance decentralised identity management on a global scale

Spherity offers a range of enterprise-focused decentralized identity and supply chain management solutions. These include 1) digital wallet solutions for Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Supplier (KYS) process automation, 2) credentialing services for real-time authentication of trading partners, and 3) a digital product passport that enables compliance with global provenance, product passport regulations, and AI regulations.Key customers and partnershipsThe company is a part of the consortium that won the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) project named “Traceability Reference Architecture Conformant EBSI for the European Union” (TRACE4EU). Funded by the European Union, the project aims to build a common blockchain architecture for the traceability of documents and physical goods using EBSI. Spherity offered its expertise in materials traceability that deals with seafood, agrifood, halloumi, and batteries.The company offers services across regulated sectors, such as automotive, pharmaceuticals, financial services, and the energy sector, as well as data infrastructure ecosystems, such as Gaia-X and Catena-X.Funding and financials&nbsp;In March 2024, Spherity <a href="https://sp-edge.com/updates/27555">raised EUR 2.5 million (USD 2.7 million)</a> in funding led by Blockwall to expand its employee base, improve its global sales and engineering capabilities, and invest in further product development. Spherity also planned to expand its presence in the US by supporting and enabling the pharmaceutical industry’s compliance with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA).

BlockCypher is an enterprise company specializing in blockchain technology. The company’s cloud-based platform helps enterprises build blockchain applications with web APIs and callbacks. BlockCypher's APIs enable users to interact with multiple blockchains and retrieve data from blocks, receive notifications about unconfirmed transactions, and request multiple signature transactions​.In terms of product offerings, BlockCypher's primary service is its cloud-based platform. The platform's design is blockchain-universal, enabling its compatibility with any blockchain. This versatility permits BlockCypher to support numerous enterprise scenarios, including supply chain oversight, financial transactions, and record maintenance.Key customers and partnershipsBlockCypher and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) partnered in June 2018 to showcase secure peer-to-peer energy transactions using the blockchain, forming the foundation for a distributed energy marketplace. This collaboration opens up new value streams for customers and utilities by reducing the need for a central arbitrator.

BlockCypher

Bloq's products are designed to accelerate blockchain development and deployment, catering to individual developers, startups, and enterprises. Focusing on enterprises, the company’s solutions are offered through the Bloq platform, which includes tools for exchanges, wallets, data and analytics, and custody providers.The company provides managed blockchain cloud services that consist of three primary services: Connect, Nodes, and Stake. Connect is a blockchain API service that accelerates the development of real-time connectivity to popular blockchain networks and access to additional blockchain data services. Nodes offers private, fully managed clusters of nodes to access popular public blockchain networks. Stake provides infrastructure and API endpoints to allow users to create validators and start staking, with support for Ethereum and Avalanche networks​​.Key customers and partnershipsThe company's timeline of innovation includes major milestones such as delivering Fidelity’s first bitcoin wallet in 2016, launching BloqLabs in 2017, and working with Citibank on a Universal Node for digital assets in 2018. In recent years, Bloq has launched BloqCloud, a managed node and API service. It also partnered with Lumerin project to tokenize hashpower and founded Atmos Labs to develop metaverse-native sports​​.Bloq’s key enterprise customers include Discover, Citigroup, Foxconn, Barclays, Fidelity, and Circle.

Bloq

Dragonchain offers a blockchain-based, language-agnostic enterprise solutions that includes a Learning Management System. Some of the solutions include 1) Lyceum, which provides traceable proof-of-course progress, completion, scoring, continuing education units, and certification, along with a GDPR- and CCPA-capable identity management platform; 2) Factor, which enables secure PII storage and streamlined authentication; and 3) A FinTech suite that supports regulatory compliance. Dragonchain’s products are quantum-safe and the proof of every transaction is secured to bitcoin, Ethereum, and other blockchain networks.In January 2020, Dragonchain was able to execute over 260 million transactions on a business system in just 24 hours. The test was run on 520 active nodes with a utilization rate of below 2%; it was estimated that at full capacity, the platform could execute approximately 13 billion transactions.The company’s solutions can be used across a range of industries, including healthcare, FinTech, government, and supply chain management. Most use cases focus on using the platform for information gathering and management, with a priority on accurate and real-time information availability.Key customers and partnershipsThe company has worked with a range of customers including Snohomish County in the US, Beaxy, Knowledge Perk, and SafePass.

Dragonchain

BlockApps is a leading provider of blockchain solutions that helps businesses enhance transparency and trust in their transactions. BlockApps' key product, STRATO, is a BaaS platform compatible with Ethereum, which is designed for business network transactions and activities, adhering to the standards of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA). It can be deployed on multiple cloud providers, integrated with various systems, and is configurable for a range of business activities. It is primarily used for building business networks with a focus on enhancing security, performance, trust, and transparency. STRATO's capabilities include tokenizing real-world assets, incorporating transparency data, and creating value chain incentives. It offers a suite of features including data privacy controls, network governance, scalability, APIs for third-party integration, audit and reporting tools, data migration facilities, identity management using existing enterprise sign-on systems, consensus mechanisms, developer tools, application portability, and the ability to use existing enterprise data models.Key customers and partnershipsIn 2016, BlockApps collaborated with ConsenSys and BHP Billiton to deploy its first production application. In the same year, it built enterprise Proof of Concepts (POCs) with John Hancock and Upgraded (now Ticketmaster).BlockApps announced an initiative with ARC, United Airlines, and Blockskye in 2018 and also launched the STRATO platform on all major cloud providers by partnering with Google and Amazon Web Services.In September 2021, it launched TraceCarbon, a CO2 ecosystem management application, supporting sustainability traceability.Funding and financialsIn April 2022, BlockApps raised USD 41 million in funding through a round led by Liberty City Ventures. The company intended to use the funding to enhance its go-to-market strategy, expand its team, help businesses expand in its blockchain ecosystem, and bring more real assets to the STRATO platform.

BlockApps

Cryptowerk is an enterprise blockchain company that offers blockchain-as-a-service, allowing organizations to create a tamper-proof chain of custody for their digital assets and enabling them to prove authenticity at scale​​. Cryptowerk's solutions are used in multiple industries, including aerospace and defense, automotive, pharmaceuticals, software, and utilities​​.The company's primary product is Cryptowerk HORIZON. This software creates tamper-proof records of digital assets that can be sealed in public or private blockchains up to one million times per second. These digital "fingerprints" can then be compared to the original data to verify authenticity. Cryptowerk HORIZON is offered as a REST API. The product is available for cloud-based deployment and supports various organizations including midsize businesses, small businesses, enterprises, freelancers, nonprofits, and government entities​​.

Cryptowerk

Companies that offer blockchain-based solutions that enable users and companies to track price, date, location, quality, and other relevant information for supply chain management

Companies and protocols that leverage blockchain technology to act as content delivery networks (CDNs) or provide content sharing solutions

Companies that leverage blockchain technology to offer databases, query services and data sharing

Companies that offer blockchain-enabled Internet-of-Things (IoT) development platforms for building networks and transferring IoT device data

Companies that leverage blockchain to protect and manage digital intellectual property (IP) rights

Companies that leverage blockchain technology to provide cybersecurity and identity management solutions for enterprises

Companies and protocols that offer industry and context specific blockchain-based solutions for enterprise applications

The blockchain-as-a-service segment operates under a B2B SaaS model

Companies offering blockchain-enabled tools to build IoT networks/supply chain traceability solutions for smart factories

Includes companies that offer blockchain-enabled tools to build IoT networks and transfer IoT device data

All companies within this industry are either blockchain-based platforms or offer blockchain-centric services

<div>
 
 Spherity, a software provider specialising in decentralized identity management, has successfully raised EUR 2.5 million (USD 2.7 million) in funding. The investment round was primarily led by Blockwall, but also included contributions from a mix of undisclosed new and existing investors.
 The influx of funding is expected to drive growth and development in several key areas. Spherity intends to increase its workforce, upgrade its worldwide sales and engineering capabilities, and further invest in the development of its leading product. In addition, a significant portion of the funds will be used to bolster the company's presence in the increasingly important US market, particularly by aiding compliance with the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA) within the pharmaceutical industry.
 Spherity's portfolio of offerings focuses on enterprise-level decentralized identity and supply chain management solutions. Services include digital wallet solutions for streamlining Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Supplier (KYS) processes, systems for real-time verification of trading partners, and a digital product passport for adhering to complex global regulations surrounding product provenance, passporting, and AI.
 
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Spherity

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