As the second phase of Blockchers comes to an end, we can safely say that we leave behind 7 very busy and successful months. The last stage of the program – implementation – finished last week; in addition, our final pitch contest was held yesterday evening as a part of the Paris Blockchain Week Summit.
The stakes were high as the 12 teams got the opportunity to introduce themselves to many international investors and industry players in the Blockchain world. The 2 winners will be announced on December 15th, at our closing webinar – with the first prize of € 17,000 and the second prize of € 13,000.
Our beloved program came to its final and most important point yesterday evening; so we would like to give you a brief overview of the milestones Blockchers has achieved in its second round this year.
The campaign
In January 2020, the second open call launched, where we succeeded in spreading the news about Blockchers to all EU Member States. As a result, we managed to get to know many European Blockchain organizations and startups and establish good relationships with them. We also participated in several high-level international events where we collectively continued to promote Blockchers.
Final figuers of the 2nd campaign:
- Submitted proposals: 220 – eligible: 111
- Origin countries: 28
- Over thresholds: 22
- Selected teams for the immersion phase: 18
The Blockathon week
The Blockathon week organized by ZABALA, took place from June 15th-19th, 2020. Unfortunately, we couldn’t organize a physical event (like last year in Budapest) due to the unexpected arrival of Covid–19 therefore, the event was held online through HOPIN. Before this competition, Innomine organized a preparation period. During which time all 18 startups took part in an individual coaching session where they received personalized advice from professionals on how to perfect their pitches. At the Blockathon Week, 12 teams were chosen to enter the implementation phase: Apio, Join, HOPU, Vestigia, Vottun, asvin.io, Datarella, Datafund, DEIP, Orvium, Minespider, Bettergy.
The implementation stage
This phase lasted 5 months, from the beginning of July until the end of November. Our strong consortium network of partners provided optimal collaboration and assistance throughout – Notably, 6 groups were mentored by Zabala and the other 6 startups by Innomine Group.
Zabala and innomine scheduled regular, bi-weekly coaching sessions in order to track all parties’ progress. The groups were able to discuss their challenges difficulties which we, the partners, were dedicated to help solve.
Alastria consistently offered chances to attend international events in the startup world, like ‘Start-Up OLÉ’ on September 9th-11th 2020 in Spain, organized match-making events with different investors with the aim to get international visibility for all teams within the program. Furthermore, they provided continuous technical support and different possibilities for media appearances to each team, like posting and promoting on their Medium page, publishing articles in the Blockchaineconomia, and feature introductions in their newsletters.
Frankfurt School Blockchain Center offered very professional and useful online courses in the field of Blockchain/DLT on various levels with the aim to provide knowledge and support for teams on the technical side of things.
During the implementation phase, we co-operated with 2 important Blockchain and Start-up communities: the Swiss Crypto Valley Association and the EU-startups.com. As part of our agreements, both organizations launched sponsored social media campaigns on Twitter and on LinkedIn in hopes of boosting the online presences and visibility of all 12 teams. Furthermore, the Frankfurt School launched their own Twitter and LinkedIn campaign to promote and introduce our 12 finalist teams at the end of November.
The recognition stage
As previously mentioned, the closing event for the final implementation stage was held on the night of December 10th, in sync with the Paris Blockchain Summit. We are happy to announce that truly outstanding startups were chosen this year once again – all performed extremely successfully in the competition. The 2 winning teams will be announced on December 15th, at our closing webinar.
Furthermore, the 2 winners will get the chance to introduce themselves and their use-case on December 16th in front of a blockchain technology expert panel (Crypto Valley Association’s board and members) and audience, as part of our joint event with the Crypto Valley Association: Introduce Blockchers to the CVA – How Europe is fostering blockchain adoption and blockchain startups – 16th Dec., Type: online webinar; 18:00- 19:30.
We are so proud of all 12 inspiring team! They are incredible, and worked very hard! This was a long journey, but we enjoyed every moment! See you again on December 15th, at our final closing webinar!