Boost VC is indeed the most powerful network in the technology industry uniting the best professionals, thought leaders, investors and simply the biggest believers, who are on a daily mission of finding solutions to everyday challenges and problems making sure to deploy the latest innovations while doing so.
Boost VC has been actively recruiting for a new edition of the accelerator program which is set to start in February. Our eyes are on who´s new in the field!
Why Blockchain?
Blockchain technology is one of the most significant technological innovations of the last years. It is true that we have only now started revealing all of the numerous opportunities offered by this innovation.
However, it has already proven its ability to eliminate middlemen, significantly improve identification processes and provide transparency of information to end users.
If we open up our imagination and look at what the world is at this exact moment, rather than what it is missing, we might as well end up making amazing discoveries driving the progress forward and making this world a better place.
That is exactly what Boost.vc is doing by, first of all, believing in passionate Blockchain entrepreneurs.
Big believers
Boost VC started investing in Blockchain companies in 2013 looking for those using the technology to settle contracts where it is possible and desirable to eliminate middlemen, confirmation of identity with personal and fraud prevention and improving transparency of information to end users.
Since then Boost VC has funded over 500 great Blockchain entrepreneurs from 20+ different countries.
Boost VC is passionate about Blockchain and believes in its potential, therefore they are constantly looking for entrepreneurs as passionate about it as they are themselves.
Imagination drives innovation
The company highly admires imagination as it is what drives all the greatest innovation. Therefore startups who push the limits of the future by making an unimaginable reality get the full support from Boost VC. They provide their companies a place to live and work and an opportunity to focus on their brilliant ideas, while at the same time educating and accelerating entrepreneurs as they embark on the exciting journey to build a technology company.
The latter, however, is a more challenging process than it may seem. It is so easy to get lost along the way if you don't set your priorities straight.
How not to stay in the Blockchain bubble
There are numerous enthusiastic entrepreneurs in the Blockchain space nowadays. Sometimes it actually seems that there are too many of them. Everyone around is so obsessed with this innovation that it seems if you are not playing with Blockchain you are missing out.
Of course, all of the benefits that Blockchain brings become more and more obvious, however, what some startups do is take the technology and then go search for a problem to apply it to.
As a result, entrepreneurs end up being stuck in the Blockchain bubble, rather than going to events focused on the issue they are tackling, whether that be financial services, identity, or fraud prevention.
Besides, customers don't really care what tool you are using to provide a service or a product, do they?
Brayton Williams, Co-Founder at Boost.VC, says in one of the blog posts:
“They want their problem solved. We need to stop talking about the ‘power of the Blockchain’. I would also add we need more designers and UI/UX experts in the space. Preach the value you are adding to my life, not the way you are doing it.”
Talking about adding value to our lives, let's take a look at some of the startups accelerated by Boost VC which are succeeding in this mission.
Volt Markets
Volt Markets is a renewable energy credit REC issuance, tracking and trading platform. This company found a way to deal with complexities in the renewable energy markets that impedes the development of the renewable energy industry.
Believing in much simpler purposeful interactions between stakeholders, they have re-imagined a current business model and designed technology to support their vision of simplicity.
Volt Markets is bringing energy and capital markets to distributed ledger technology that is more transparent and efficient than existing systems in order to streamline the distribution, tracking and trading of energy.
PopChest
PopChest is on a mission to help great video makers get big enough to be sustained by advertising revenue.
It is a Blockchain-based media distribution platform that allows content creators to get paid directly, in real-time and for every video view, while giving the audience the smoothest experience with no sign ups, no subscriptions and no commitment.
The company was founded in 2015 having limited access but they recently acquired a YouTuber with over 600,000 subscribers creating a boost in interest in the platform.
RainVow
RainVow rethinks the concept of community-based insurance and introduces a new type of Smart contracts, so-called Smart Vows, developed in the Ethereum Network to facilitate the offering and acceptance of policies or vows among community members to hedge against unforeseen events.
How about being compensated for unforeseen costs on a rainy day? The RainVow platform validates the coverage policies associated with extra transportation costs in rainy days. Using the Weather data API and Uber API the built-in oracle is responsible for notifying the contract that the trip took place while it was raining. Cryptography enables the source authentication of new events notifications. The private beta app became available for Android users in October 2016.
Founders of RainVow believe that in the near future a new set of centralized and decentralized organizations will start designing and offering Smart Vows transforming insurance industry.
Factury
Factury pioneers in applying distributed ledger technology to reinvent and diversify investment possibilities in credit products originated by non-bank lenders.
The company is playing around the advantage of Blockchain to cut out traditional intermediaries in capital acquisition and introducing a simple and transparent business framework allowing for streamlining processes for balance sheet lenders and institutional investors.
Factury introduces a new financial instrument in the credit industry in the form of loan receivables split into future payments enabling unprecedented tracking capabilities back to the data source.
Blockchain technology is used here to provide undeniable evidence that loans have been paid or repaid. The loan receivables are stored on a distributed permissioned database where copies of the same database are available to both Originator and Investor.
The platform has potential to become the backbone for the long-term trust among the parties, serving as a transaction verifier, custodian and audit trail.
Blossom
We can’t stop saying how Blockchain is changing our lives. Here we are talking more on a general level about revolutionizing industries. But how about making an impact and changing someone's life?
Blossom allows you to invest in micro businesses that generate livable incomes for families in emerging markets in exchange for a share of their profits. How? Through the Blossom platform, you can choose a microfinance institution that matches your values and has a solid track record of success.
Then local microfinance partners select the most qualified investment beneficiaries based on a variety of factors. Then your investments are directed to beneficiaries who use it to create or grow a business that could generate a livable income for their family.
On this mission to connect creditworthy businesses looking for funding with smart investors and building a mutually beneficial partnership, Blockchain stands at the core, as it allows eliminating costs and complexity of banks.
You get your share in the success of the dozens of micro businesses that your investment helped to start or grow and points to your karma.