Blockchain Startups In India

The banking sector has modernized and tried to deal with all types of hindrances in transactions, leakages and ease of process utilising internet. Digital payments have almost ended the sluggish and orthodox process of physical transactions. It just takes few minutes to do the payments using credit/debit cards Or Net banking. Even the business dinosaurs - Google and Amazon have also launched their digital payment platforms as Google Pay (G-Pay) and Amazon Pay respectively. Paytm and UPI have also gained popularity in the last few years. But this doesn’t mean that no further amendments or changes aren’t needed! Banks or Third Parties still charge some pennies while online transaction and bank frauds are on exponential rise. Not even a single bank in this world can guarantee of 100% security of customer data and money. Half of the adults around the world doesn’t have access to financial services because the financial institutions are too far away or too expensive to use. All the banks have very strict rules which must be followed as they don’t show mercy under any conditions. The 2008 financial crisis where several banks failed teaches us that there is no such thing as a trusted third party. They failed because of mismanagement, greed or they can be involved in illegal bank activities. Therefore, to solve this problem, blockchain was coined by Satoshi Nakamoto. The era of digital currency evolved and is now the future of banking system. So, let us see the complete story on the topic- Blockchain Start-ups In India.

RentalCoins
Signzy
LaLa World
CoinGeto
Unocoin
CoinSwitch
Coinsecure
ZebPay
uTrade
StreamSource

Bitcoin and Blockchain

Bitcoin is a type of digital currency that operates independently from a central bank. There are many different blockchains- public and private. They allow anyone to send value anywhere in the world where the blockchain file can be accessed. Think of each chain as an online database stored in a distributed, peer-to-peer fashion. The storage devices for the database are not all connected to common processor and each block – ordered records – has a timestamp and a link to a previous block. The Blockchain is an Internet-based, distributed, public database where transactions can only be added once they are validated through complex mathematics that prove authenticity of the data. It is a public ledger of all the transactions that have ever been executed.

Also Read: Cryptocurrency and Blockchain: How can it change India?

Blockchain Start-ups in India

Here is a list of the 10 most exciting blockchain startups. they are:-

1. RentalCoins

Founded  : 2017
Location  : Bangalore (India)
Total Funding : USD 8M

RentalCoins 1.0 is a private cryptocurrency of the Drivezy, that is a decentralized car rental platform. The tokens are used to create a fleet of collaboratively-owned vehicles accessible to customers. Also offers an app that provides updates on operational vehicles, vehicle blocks and maintenance schedule and information about activity, location, and revenue of the vehicle.

2. Signzy

Founded  : 2015
Location  : Bangalore (India)
Total Funding : USD 4M
Investors  : Stellaris Venture Partners, Kalaari Capital, Rajan Anandan and 17 Other Investors

Signzy is a digital contract platform which enables digital drafting and signing of legal contracts. Customers need to upload their contract in PDF/DOC format or choose a standard contract format. Signzy verifies the signature and identity of the user and also stores the contracting history on the cloud for future reference. Claims to guarantee non-repudiation of contracts through their biometric user authentication system and block chain based digital trail. The company is running pilots on blockchain technology in the areas of security for financial service companies and of smart contracts on financial assets.

Also Read: How UPI impacted FinTech Industry?

3. LaLa World

Founded  : 2016
Location  : Delhi (India)
Total Funding : USD 2M

LaLa World provides a financial ecosystem targeting the underbanked and migrant population. Provides 5 major products: LaLa Transfer for P2P remittance, LaLa Bill Pay for global bill payments, LaLa Lends for P2P lending, LaLa Card for payments at PoS, and LaLa Kit that contains a mobile phone with pre-loaded LALA Wallet, LALA Insurance, LALA Card, Partners' products etc.

4. CoinGeto

Founded  : 2015
Location  : Delhi (India)
Total Funding : USD 2M
Investors  : Impanix Capital

CointGeto is a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Users can buy, sell and exchange cryptocurrencies on the platform. Accepts payments via credit card, debit card, UPI payments and bank transfers. The platform supports Bitcoin, Ethereum and GETO tokens.

5. Unocoin

Founded  : 2013
Location  : Bangalore (India)
Total Funding : USD 2M
Investors  : Blume Ventures, ah! Ventures, Mumbai Angels and 10 Other Investors

Unocoin enables users to buy bitcoins by paying INR from any online bank, or through NEFT/RTGS. Uses can buy/sell a maximum of 2 bitcoins per day. It also holds bitcoin campaigns which connect large buyers and sellers of bitcoin in India. Seed round was led by Barry Silbert's Bitcoin Opportunity Fund. Partnered with BTCJam to offer P2P lending services in India.

Also Read: 20 Best Fintech Startups in India

6. CoinSwitch

Founded  : 2017
Location  : Bangalore (India)
Total Funding : USD 2M
Investors  : Sequoia Capital

CoinSwitch is an online cryptocurrency exchange. Users can enter the amount and currency to be exchanged, and coinswitch provides options for the best prices. Users can choose among the option, convert the currency, and track the progress. As of Jan'18, supports 100+ cryptocurrencies including bitcoin, litecoin, ethereum, ripple, and self among others.  

7. Coinsecure

Founded  : 2014
Location  : Delhi (India)
Total Funding : USD 1M

Coinsecure is an India based Bitcoin exchange and trading platform. It charges a fee of 0.3% per transaction and uses a hybrid wallet solution to store funds in cold storage with a small percentage of funds in the hot wallet for immediate withdrawals. Partnered with OKLink, Hong Kong based company to enable remittances to India.  

8. ZebPay

Founded  : 2014
Location  : Ahmedabad (India)
Total Funding : USD 1M
Investors  : Claris Capital

Zebpay is a mobile Bitcoin wallet app. Users can buy and sell bitcoins using their local currency from the Zebpay app. They can also use their bitcoins to encash them via eVouchers like e-commerce vouchers, airtime and gift cards. Plans to charge its partners a referral commission. Also has plans to charge a fee to merchants using Zebpay to accept bitcoins for premium merchant features. Part of Zeb Ventures private limited registered in Singapore and has its main operation and development office in Ahmedabad, India. Launched in India in March, 2015. Arjun Handa, chief managing director of Claris Life Sciences and Amit Jindal, managing director of Jindal Worldwide, invested around $450K and $150K respectively. Nagendra Chaudhary, chairman at Jaipur-based Triangle Engineering invested $150K among other investors in series A round of funding. As of July 2016, the company has 65K+ users.

9. uTrade

Founded  : 2011
Location  : Chandigarh (India)
Total Funding : USD 1M
Investors  : Nitin Jindal, Aiysha Ahmed, Mohit Agarwal and 17 Other Investors

Financial technology solutions company providing various products including multi-asset trading platform, algorithms and analytics. Offers muTrade, a high frequency trading platform that is delivered along with various automated algorithms; provides detailed portfolio and trading analytics. Products enable investors to analyse latest and historical market and social media information to make smart trading decisions. Has raised $1M till date and has clients in India, Singapore and Dubai and has identified clients in Indonesia, Turkey and Africa. In June 2016, the company launched uClear, a blockchain driven solution that will enable real time clearing and settlement of contracts across the cash and derivatives segments of the financial markets. The first stage of adoption will be led by the Over-the-Counter (OTC) segments without existing central clearing infrastructure such as foreign exchange (FX) and the fixed income securities markets.

10. StreamSource

Founded  : 2018
Location  : Gurgaon (India)
Total Funding : USD 1M

StreamSource is a decentralized personal loans marketplace, based on Quorum blockchain. Lenders and debt buyers can initiate & settle transactions that include buying & selling of credit approved leads and loan transactions. Lenders upload their credit models on secure blockchain node and can provide other partners access to their decision model. The platform allows to bid, buy & sell leads to other partner lenders.