Last week BlockStart held its 2nd Ideation event, kick-starting its 2nd Acceleration Programme. 10 DLT/blockchain startups have been selected and will now go through a 4-months Prototype stage to further develop their solution

Last week, on the 26th of November, between 9am and 6pm WET (Lisbon Time), BlockStart organized the project’s 2nd Ideation event, that officially kick-started its Acceleration Programme. This one-day event is the bridge between the online selection of DLT/blockchain developers and the challenges that SMEs face.

The Ideation Kick-off event brought together more than 70 representatives from the previously selected top 20 DLT/blockchain startups of Open Call #2, the 10 selected end-user SMEs (which have applied to BlockStart’s Open Call #2 for end-user SMEs, first cut-off date), BlockStart’s Advisory Board, expert guests in both blockchain and the target sectors, and the consortium members.

The concept of the event is to get to know existing DLT/blockchain technologies from their developers, match those with real SME needs and draw a roadmap on how to go from potential to real benefits.

The first half of the day was dedicated to the DLT/blockchain developers’ pitches. Each pitch was 5 minutes long, followed by a Q&A from the jury members. In the beginning of the afternoon, each SME adopter had 3 minutes to present to the audience their activities and the challenges they have in hand which may be addressed by blockchain. Then, there was matchmaking session, with a series of pre-arranged meetings between DLT/blockchain developers and SME adopters. More than 20 matchmaking meetings were held during this event.

At the end of this one-day event, the jury selected the top 10 most promising and innovative DLT/blockchain startup developers that would go to BlockStart’s Prototype stage: a 4 months acceleration where they will receive mentorship to achieve product/market fit.

Congratulations to our top 10 DLT/blockchain startups

After a long day, and with so many promising and innovative startups to evaluate, the BlockStart jury has decided to invite the following 10 startups to participate in the project’s Prototype stage:

But what can they expect next?

Our top 10 DLT/blockchain startups must now prepare to enter a 4-months Prototype stage, where they are expected to further develop and adapt their DLT/blockchain-based solution before entering the Pilot stage, a 2-months real life pilot with end-user SMEs in which startups are expected to pilot their product and ensure product/market fit.

After the end of the Prototype stage, each startup is expected to receive €15.000 for successfully reaching the goals of their previously agreed Action Plan for this stage and will have the chance to again pitch their solution, and the developments made, to a jury from BlockStart consortium. Only 5 startups will be selected to move forward to the programme’s Pilot stage and be given the chance to validate and test their solution with potential end-user SMEs.

Stay in touch and follow up

We would like to thank all the top 20 teams that had the change to pitch at BlockStart’s 2nd Ideation Kick-off event, as well as to all 10 SMEs that presented their needs, meet with our startups and shown interest in a long-term collaboration. Our committee of experts had a tough time deliberating over so many qualified projects. Missing the cut at such an initial stage may hurt, but we will do our best to follow-up all our startups the best we can and there is also another Open Call ready for launch in early next year.

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