Knowtary exists to reduce document bureaucracy by validating and recognizing documents publicly and fully integrating public and private identity and land registration mechanisms

Lisbon, Portugal
Established in 2020

knowtary.io

Teaser of the company

Knowtary digitally supports any entity that examines contractual agreements, signatures, land registry documents, and gives the requestors their public document certification or signature/stamp that such registry/transaction is verified. Knowtary exists to reduce environmental costs and paper waste caused by excess document bureaucracy, and to make the integration of notarial processes in all Europe, promoting SMEs’ productivity.

Knowtary has developed the following blockchain-based prototype in the scope of BlockStart:

Automated Subsidy form Submission

azzur.knowtary

Azzur needed a digital identity authentication solution to connect and validate multiple requestors’ documentation and contracts for a State Pandemic Subsidy Form Submission.

Knowtary customized the analogue into digital form, validate the documentation and provided a simple to use mobile interface.

For security and data protection purposes, the platform separates data custodians, GDPR complaint personal data stores (off-chain), and multi-stakeholder metadata.

Technical development during Prototype stage

During the development of Knowtary, the following technical developments have taken place:

  • The prototype is a progressive web app (PWA) – deployed using a custom framework based on IONIC. It is responsive, meaning it can work both on mobile and desktop (larger screen).

    This service is hosted on Google’s Firebase.  The Backend uses PHP and SQL Server for a database. This is hosted on Microsoft Azure. The current version of the prototype is targeting the first subset of our customers described here. In particular, some SMEs are participating in the BlockStart competition.

  • This version features the creation of dynamic document templates that can be filled with information and sent via a link to a receiver and this person can fill in the information, sign it, and then the whole document is notarized on the blockchain. The software has been developed with multi-language support (Currently it supports Portuguese, Spanish, and English – this last one being the default).

Business development during Prototype stage

During the development of Knowtary, the following business developments have taken place:

  • Our basic model is to charge a monthly fee + tiered transactions to our end clients.

    The pricing model is Freemium. So, the client can test some transactions in exchange for feedback and after 3 transactions the model changes to the first level of paid SaaS. The basic version of the software is free, and the improved version of the software is $9 per month per company. The tiered transaction has an incentive to move up the pricing model to achieve economies of scale. Additionally, Knowtary will charge a monthly subscription from OEM clients and charging fees. At the same time, it should provide free analytics and insights, forecasts, KPIs, and connectors. The company’s focus is on stable clients, established companies that have the incentive to pay Knowtary a monthly subscription to achieve higher efficiency of legal and notary services.

  • In the past months of the BlockStart programme, we were in contact with the following accelerations/potential investors: ANI – Agência Nacional de Inovação – this is the Portuguese national innovation agency that promotes IP-based businesses. The meeting with a board member was to determine the level of financing these deep tech ventures would attain from public funding. Knowtary is expecting to get more updates in the following months.

  • Knowtary has also establishing contacts via LinkedIn with Angel and VC to nurture a relationship to advance into a firm interest based on the results of the pilots. Additionally, it is modeling the solution to have Notaries as owners/investors of the blockchain network where each notary would own a node and would pay setup fees as well as royalties for transaction fees.

  • Our business roadmap for the next months is as follows:

Present (Pilot) Q4 2021
Marketing
  • Azzur Business Use case Brochure
  • Plastic Free Certification Business Use Case Brochure
  • OEM Partnership with Unlockit.io
  • OEM Brochure
  • Deloitte (Cuatrecasas) Business Use Case Brochure
  • Partnership/ MoU with Ordem dos Notarios
  • Whitelabel Brochure (based on Ordem dos Notarios)
Business development and Sales
  • Deals closed with: Azzur, Plastic Free Certification, Deloitte Legal (Cuatre Casas), TSO
  • Pilot Statement from  4 committed SMEs;
  • Deal closed with: Unlockit.io, Twenty-five (25) active users, Leveraging the Notary relation with Ordem dos Notários

  • Additionally, Knowtary has engaged with multiple advisors (technical, business, legal, and academic). Guido Santos is one of the team’s technical advisors with extensive experience in blockchain implementations. At the same time, Armando Ferreira (with extensive knowledge in notarization) supports legal advice. Prof. Avelino Zorzo (with an extensive technical background in Security, Digital Forensics, Blockchain and Prof. Catarina Ferreira da Silva (with an extensive technical background in Interoperability of IS, Semantic Web, Ontologies, and Service-Oriented Computing) are supporting Knowtary’s blockchain development with their knowledge and experience.

  • Knowtary is also recruiting another computer programmer to assist in the development of client solutions which should be implemented beyond the Pilot stage

  • Presently, they have two SME adopters committed to the Pilot in an advanced stage of development. The team’s business development activities are mostly focused on past client references as well as referrals from existing pilot companies (Azzur and Plastic Free Certification). Additionally, the SME adopters it has reached out other than Azzur and PFC, are Volvero, e-swissolar and Global & Local

Pilot stage implementation

Pilots 

In BlockStart, Knowtary implemented its “Knowtary” product in 5 SME adopters

Custom app where the company could create document templates and digitally sign then on the blockchain.

Full pilot deployed with document signing and blockchain notarization.

Custom app that allow the company to create folders where certification documents issued by auditors are signed and notarized on the blockchain.

Basic Pilot deployed with document features.

Started the definition of the technical scope for the implementation of a prototype.

Preliminary step. Collecting the documents and deliberating about the SMEs goals.

Started the definition of the technical scope for the implementation of a prototype.

Preliminary step. Collecting the documents and deliberating about the SMEs goals.

Started the definition of the technical scope for the implementation of a prototype.

Preliminary step. Collecting the documents and deliberating about the SMEs goals.

SME adopters

Meet the Team

Rui Serapicos
Rui SerapicosCEO
Rui Serapicos is an entrepreneur with extensive experience in IT, and BPR. Vast experience in international sectors such as Banking, Telecos, Pharma, Retail & Services. Career in several organizations, including Gartner, Boyden and GE Capital. MBA by IMD, BSc. from the Univ. of London and Diploma in Strategy and Innovation from MIT.
Thiago Vinícius de Souza
Thiago Vinícius de SouzaCTO
Technical Co-founder with 15 years of experience working on software development and integration for small and large corporations
Lívia Cynara Prates Thomé
Lívia Cynara Prates ThoméLegal Researcher
Attorney with strong knowledge in international and privacy law (GDPR). Educational background includes Master in International Law, a Certificate in IoT and Blockchain and currently is a PhD student in Digital Government and Blockchain at ULisboa
Alona Sorochynska
Alona SorochynskaData Scientist
Data Analyst with IT background (recovering of information, web design, system administration, hardware tester, computer building, photographer, office administration, etc.

Knowtary’s achievements

Media features

For more information, download the company’s portfolio and leaflet:

Company leaflet

Like a professional egg incubator, BlockStart knows what they are doing. From the right room temperature (support process, startup ecosystem and mentoring aid), to the follow up process approach that kept our team aligned with the solution development, all was in place at the right time.

Rui Serapicos, CEO, Knowtary

Total funding received by CLEVERVERSION LDA under BlockStart: €20,000 (€1,000 for Ideation Kick-off, €15,000 for Prototype stage and €4,000 for Pilot stage)