Blockchain Technology to Reach $3 Trillion by 2030

PwC Report: Blockchain Technology to Reach $3 Trillion by 2030

From CryptoSlate.com by Shaurya Malwa August 28, 2018

PwC, a “Big Four” auditing firm, recently published research that found 84 percent of companies have either a “live” blockchain project or experiment underway.

China Primed to Lead Blockchain Innovation

The company surveyed over 600 executives from 15 countries–including the U.S., India, China, Africa and Sweden–with only 14 percent of respondents having “no involvement in blockchain technology.” (The sum does not equal 100 percent due to rounding.)

The study also found that 30 percent of respondents believe China is set to dominate blockchain development over the next five years, with only 18 percent backing the U.S.

Meanwhile, four out of five executives confirmed blockchain projects were underway at their organizations, with 15 percent of respondents having “live” networks up and running. Thirty-two percent of the firms are still developing their blockchain products, while 10 percent are running pilot models and 7 percent have “paused” research and development.

PwC cited a Gartner report forecasting a $3 trillion market value of blockchain business by 2030, with the survey recognizing ICOs and asset tokenization as a significant feature of the technology’s future.

Trust: A Compelling Concern

A vast majority of the respondents cited regulatory uncertainty and a lack of trust as the “biggest barriers” to mainstream technology adoption, with 45 percent terming it the most significant hurdle to adoption.

Steve Davies, a blockchain consultant at PwC, stated:

“Businesses tell us that they don’t want to be left behind by blockchain, even if at this early stage of its development, concerns on trust and regulation remain.”

Davies added that blockchain technology is “trustless” in nature, but companies “confront trust at nearly every turn.”

Davies noted blockchain technology presents a considerable ecosystem for companies and is unlike an “IT project,” meaning it involves put down rules, robust regulations, globally-accepted standards and perennial flexibility toward regulatory decisions.

Blockchain Frameworks Defined

Survey results are understandably dominated by finance and fintech service companies, with 46 percent respondents calling it the “leading” sector in the coming years. Other identified disruptors were healthcare, industrial manufacturing and energy.

The study also identified four “key areas” for startups and large organizations looking to integrate a blockchain-based framework into their business. These include making the business case, building an ecosystem, concentrating on user-centric design and navigating regulatory uncertainty.

According to Davies:

“A well-designed blockchain doesn’t just cut out intermediaries, it reduces costs and increases speed, reach, transparency and traceability for many business processes. The benefits can be compelling if organizations understand what their endgame is in using the technology, and match that to their design.”

Source: https://cryptoslate.com/pwc-report-blockchain-technology-to-reach-3-trillion-by-2030/

Venture capital investments in cryptocurrency startups up 316% in 2018

Venture capital investments in cryptocurrency startups up 316% in 2018

From Cryptomorrow.com by David Kariuki Nov 23, 2018

A recent report by Outlier Ventures reveals that venture capital investments in the cryptocurrency industry attained a year-over-year growth of 316% to $2.85 billion from $900 million through the three quarters of 2018.

This indicates that more startups in the blockchain and cryptocurrency are turning to more traditional forms of funding even as the number of initial coin offerings or ICOs continued to decrease and raise lesser total amount of capital especially in the third quarter of this year. Of course, the report agrees with previous reports that many startups are now using a mix model of raising capital including ICOs and venture funding.

Outlier Ventures, for instance, says that in the 119 venture capital deals completed in Q3 of this year, venture capital share was the highest in total compared to the total in other quarters this year. VCs within the United States continue to drive these venture capital investments in blockchain and cryptocurrencies. The report states that with capital investments shifting away from tech-savvy retail investors toward VCs, hedge funds and ultimately larger institutional investors, "a large growth" in (startups) new businesses and services that are enabling institutional investors to enter the industry. Those new businesses and services are coming in the form of institutional-grade trading platforms, custody providers, etc that want to solve the technical complexity and risks of dealing with blockchain and crypto such as risk of users losing private keys.

A previous report last month from market research group Diar also indicated venture capital raised by blockchain and cryptocurrency startups had increased three-fold to $3.8 billion in 2018 compared to last year's total. This amount was raised from 2,000 investors (most from U.S. based dealmakers) across 384 deals. The report by Outlier Ventures says some startups in cryptocurrency and blockchain that do not require networks (online communities) to survive, have been avoiding token generation events called ICOs because of increasing legal expenses, marketing costs and community building efforts required. Of course, a lot of decrease in popularity of ICOs has come as a result of bear cryptocurrency market as being witnessed currently. ICOs, according to the new report, raised $1 billion down from $3.8 billion in Q1 representing a 74% decline since the start of the year.

That does not mean the token is unpopular: the report says that startups still believe that the tokens are foundational to Web 3.0 infrastructure and represent the opportunity for new business models. The role of the token is also evolving beyond fund raising into a model for business innovation and could expand as a way to engage, retain and attract users. The latter is being witnessed with chat apps like Kik, Telegram and Line implementing tokens.

Additionally, according to the report, FinTech innovation around crypto and blockchain is still alive and hot. For instance, there was introduction of a blockchain phone in the third quarter from HTC. Evolution of blockchain-based mobile devices and smartphones is expected to help reduce the "leak of personal data from phones and combine secure enclave security with blockchain-based verification and authentication systems." It says that future iterations of retail mobile devices will integrate blockchains as a method to " authenticate third parties accessing private data of individuals." Currently, the new hotness is zero knowledge according to the new report, with enterprises becoming further interested in zero knowledge proofs (ZKP) that for instance enable private transactions, authentication of entries on the ledger, and the verification of claims "without necessarily requiring access to the data itself."

Banking and financial institutions continue to lead in blockchain innovations as their fin-tech programs capitalize on blockchain-based open source projects according to the report.

The author is of the opinion that reduction in volatility could have resulted from "accumulation of tokens by larger more established players and retail investors (who are) no longer panic selling." The author notes that the current bear market, which has seen the market collapse from a high of $829bn in early January to currently around $200bn, is "very unattractive" for active cryptocurrency traders.
According to the report, a lack of volatility for tokens has resulted to a drop in daily volumes from over $20 billion to slightly over $10 billion this quarter.

It says that a rise in alternative investment instruments in the market such as DARs from Citi Bank could further reduce the volume of Bitcoin futures contracts, which has already fallen this year and whose launch (CBOE's) "has not necessarily done much to positively impact the price of the token." Bitcoin futures are struggling partly because of the "heavy expenses involved in taking and maintaining positions."

The new report by Outlier Ventures does reiterate the role of and development of regulation around blockchain and crypto topics: more countries continue to make decisive regulatory determinations relating to the issue, and "forward-looking" countries have started to engage with "regional banking entities" to create a regulatory environment that captures the "vast economic gains." France, Thailand, Singapore, Switzerland and Thailand have pushed for the creation of ecosystems that enable token issuance this past quarter. Japan’s Financial Services Agency also enabled self-regulation of the industry through the ‘Virtual Currency Exchange Association. The UK, France and Switzerland are also exploring possibilities of enabling the token economy.

Source: http://www.cryptomorrow.com/

Venture Capital Marketplace to Asia with VNX Exchange

VNX Exchange is bringing its tokenized venture capital marketplace to Asia with new Senior Vice President Zing Yang.

From Coinannouncer.com By Eseandre Mordi Nov. 22, 2018

The VNX™ exchange – with operational headquarters in Luxembourg, has begun implementation of its marketplace expansion plans. Such moves by the company are aimed at aptly covering newer territories outside the European axis so that more people can have access to some form of simplified token asset trading opportunities. Hence, the exchange’s action is substantially not unconnected with the perceived need for a viable framework that would facilitate the accomplishment of the company’s innovative business objectives for the cryptocurrency setting.

Consequently, VNX has finished its organizational internal formalities for the appointment of its new senior vice president- who would oversee company affairs in the Asian region. The senior executive ZingYang would be directly concerned with the company’s new business interactions in the Asian continent, and she is expected to execute tokenized digital currency venture asset projects that would paint the VNX’s company name and objectives in a positive limelight.

Functions and objectives of the VNX digital currency marketplace

According to operational objective and roadmap tendencies, the VNX exchange is designed to support an active community of digital asset buyers and sellers, on its tokenized asset venture capital supporting platform. The company’s objectives are directed at creating an impressive liquidity structure for the venture capital front, as well as providing an effective and proven means of fund sourcing for ingenious and prospective businesses- powered on a decentralized protocol, amongst others.

With the VNX exchange services, users can successfully explore the merits of prompt digital asset trading and investments, while leveraging on the value-added services as provided by the platform development and management team. Analysts say that the VNX operation methods are very much relevant in terms of simplifying the many risks and complexities of digital asset venture capital investments. By this, the platform creates an opportunity for both the experienced stakeholders and the newbie investors, to profitably engage in the platform’s hosted services.

Note that the platform assists users in a reasonable way, by enabling risk diversifications from the initial stages of user investment. This part of the framework is important because it shares off too much concentrated risks that could results in substantial losses for the investing user.

In order to ensure the effectiveness of its efforts, the VNX digital venture capital marketplace has also entered into top-notch partnerships with cryptocurrency key players- who would help in creating a synergy that brings good results for all the collaborating firms. One of such partnerships is the VNX and NEM blockchain partnership, which was also recently agreed upon. The collaboration has been able to incorporate an ability to produce different protocols and their corresponding security tokens, which would assist businesses and organizations that are hosted on the NEM network. This achievement fulfills one of the exchange’s foremost objective, which aims at facilitating the creation and provision of tokenized assets.

The VNX founder and boss, Alexander Tkachenko, has expressed the company’s readiness to follow through with seeing to it that digital venture capital investments are given a rightful place priority in the next few years.

Zing Yang’s responsibilities as the new Asian VNX service head

The new vice chief for the Asian market is charged with a number of responsibilities that are considered pivotal to the exchange’s success tendencies (or failures) in the new frontier. Zing Yang’s primary assignments are quite specific, and this would most likely take the bulk of her concentration for the earliest periods of her tenure.

Since the VNX company operations are still very much new in the region, she is expected to basically create some high-level user to company trust, which would allow for greater public participation in the solutions that the platform has to offer.

As part of the schedule for bringing this to light, she would be working to extend VNX company operations to countries such as Singapore, South Korea, and Hong Kong. These are places with significant cryptocurrency usage and investments; however the scope is not intended to limit on these countries alone, in the long run.

Asides this, Yang is charged with a responsibility of creating and enforcing a local footprint for the company, as well as building up a strong ecosystem- that stands the test of time, in the Asian axis. If the company’s intentions for its newfound operation location comes to fulfillment, then the company should have established a major stronghold in the coming days.

The new executive’s appointment comes as a well made choice, considering the fact that Yang has worked extensively in investment management fields, as well as other job descriptions involving public and private equity. She is an expert in digital currency and venture capital investments among others, with several years of active participation plus reasonable contributions made. She is currently a director at the Litecoin foundation, having served in other positions in various firms such as the capital group.

For more information, visit: https://vnx.io/

Source: https://www.coinannouncer.com/vnx-exchange-appoints-zing-yang-to-act-as-its-senior-vice-president-in-the-asian-region/

Crypto Startup Funding Bubble has Burst

'Unsustainable' crypto startup funding bubble has burst

From Yahoo Finance UK by Oscar Williams-Grut Nov. 15, 2018

The “initial coin offering” (ICO) funding market is being crushed by the “crypto winter”, according to two new reports.

ICOs are where startups and projects raise money by issuing digital coins or tokens, similar to bitcoin, in exchange for real money. The majority of tokens are snapped up by ordinary retail investors, cutting out venture capitalists and other early-stage institutional investors.

The fundraising method emerged in 2017 and almost 500 projects raised more than $5bn (£3.8bn) through ICOs last year. ICOs continued to be popular at the start of 2018, with the total raised through the method surpassing 2017 levels in April. But the market has since collapsed as cryptocurrency prices dived.

Reports from ICORating, an independent crypto ratings agency, and Outlier Ventures, a blockchain and crypto-focused venture capital firm, show that the third quarter was brutal for the market.

The amount of money raised and quality of startups declines, returns on investments were negative, and apparent scams have become commonplace.

The reports show:

• Startups raised 48% less through ICOs in the third quarter compared to the second.
• 75% of startups trying to raise money had nothing but an idea.
• The average return from ICO tokens in the quarter was -22%.
• 64% of attempted ICOs failed.
• 19% of companies that raised money through ICOs in the third quarter have deleted their websites and social media accounts, suggesting they were scams.

Outlier Venture’s report blamed the “crypto winter” for part of the slowdown, while ICORating said it expects to see projects go bust in the coming months.

On the slide: The number of ICOs and amount raised through the method has been steadily declining since May. Photo: ICORating.

“We expect some strongly hyped projects which raised significant funding to actually fail for a variety of reasons – due to being compromised as scams, to conflicts between founders, failure to deliver the promised technology or a failure of solutions offered to be widely adopted,” ICORating’s report said.

Jamie Burke, the founder and CEO of Outlier Ventures, told Yahoo Finance UK: “We knew what was happening towards the end of last year was unsustainable. The reason it was unsustainable was a lot of it was not tied to underlying value. Being more technically involved in the industry, we were aware that the hype was running ahead of technology.”

The majority of projects that raise money through ICOs rely on blockchain technology in some form or another. However, Burke said that the infrastructure is not yet developed enough to support many of the ideas that projects raised money for last year.

“The market got a bit of itself,” Burke said. “All the possibilities that blockchains and distributed ledgers offered, everybody rushed to try and realise those and the capital rushed to follow them. But the reality is the technical cycle is much further behind the market cycle.”

‘A vast number are scams’
ICORating’s report found scams are increasingly common in the market: 19% of ICO projects from the third quarter have already deleted their social network accounts and websites, suggesting they were scams. The projects collectively raised $62m, 3% of the total $1.8bn raised through ICOs in the third quarter.

“The key problem with ICOs is that a vast number of them are scams or scam-like projects,” the report said, noting that there has been an “an increasing lack of transparency from ICO teams/projects” that makes it harder to tell the good from the bad.

However, Burke said: “A large majority of ICOs shouldn’t have ICOed full-stop. Now, does that make them a fraud? I don’t think so. 90% of startups fail in their first three years. The numbers pretty much mirror traditional early-stage ventures.”

Outlier Venture’s report found that venture capital is increasingly filling the void left by ICOs when it comes to digital token-based projects. VCs have invested almost $3bn in these projects in 2018, which is “more venture capital inflow than all previous years combined,” according to Outlier Ventures.

“Although the number and size of public token fundraises has reduced, startups, corporates and regulators continue to believe that tokens are foundational to Web 3.0 infrastructure and represent the opportunity for new business models,” Outlier Ventures’ report said.

Burke said: “We don’t see ICOs as dead. They are just evolving as the industry professionalises.“

Source: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/unsustainable-crypto-startup-funding-bubble-burst-080005455.html

Start-up Bitcoin Rewards Firm Raises $2.25 million

Bitcoin [BTC] rewards start-up raises $2.25 million; Bain Venture Capital one among the investors

From AMBcrypto.com by Priya, Nov. 15, 2018

Earlier today, Lolli, a Bitcoin rewards start-up announced that they have raised $2.25 million in their seed round. The start-up gained investment from the top-notch players across the globe.

This included Bain Capital, a private investment firm based in Boston, Version One, Digital Currency Group, Forerunner Ventures, 3K VC, Quaker Health Ventures, SV Angel, FJ Labs, and Rugged Ventures. More so, the company stated that they gained investment from the “some incredible strategic angels.”

With the investment raised in their seed round, the start-up will be making further improvements on their product, add more merchants, increase the strength their team and increase the adoption of Lolli.

The reward application enables users to gain free Bitcoin when they shop online. This includes various industries such as lifestyle, trade, food, and fashion. Lolli has partnered with over 500 online retail merchants. The company which works towards making Bitcoin more accessible has successfully added Hilton, Marriott, GoDaddy, Priceline, Booking.com, Walgreens, VRBO, and CVS to their partnership list.

The CEO and Founder of Lolli, Alex Adelman, in an interview with The Block said:

People haven’t really thought about the consumer. People want to earn bitcoin more than they want to spend it. You can attract young, affluent users who are tech-savvy if you offer them bitcoin”

Adelman further added:

“We are working with international retailers. Bitcoin is inherently international”

According to The Block, Angela Tran Kingyens, a partner at Version one said:

“Lolli makes it incredibly simple for people to earn bitcoin when they shop online. All a user has to do is sign up for Lolli and shop at one of 750+ top online stores, and they will automatically get bitcoin deposited to their Lolli wallet. The simplicity of the product and mass appeal of shopping will lead to broader adoption of bitcoin.”

Source: https://ambcrypto.com/bitcoin-btc-rewards-start-up-raises-2-25-million-bain-venture-capital-one-among-the-investors/

IPOS Are Having a Record-Breaking Year

A RECORD-BREAKING YEAR FOR IPOS

AngelList Weekly, November 15, 2018

2019 is shaping up to be a breakout year for tech IPOs.

The economy is strong, unemployment rates are low, and investor optimism is high with rising tech valuations. Airbnb, Slack, and Lyft could all go public within the next year, and despite its slowing growth, Uber is among the most anticipated offerings in years.

The ride-sharing company's latest valuation sits just over $70 billion, but recent estimates could have it pegged at upwards of $100 billion. Even though Uber announced $1.07 billion in third-quarter losses Wednesday, it still has the potential to be the biggest IPO in history. Alibaba currently holds that title for its $25 billion offering in 2014, but at a rumored valuation of $120 billion, Uber would only need to offer a fraction of its shares to take the crown.

For comparison, Uber’s possible $120 billion valuation would be roughly four times Airbnb’s current $31 billion, eight times Lyft’s $15 billion, and over 17 times Slack’s $7 billion.

The numbers are staggering in their own right, but their potential is even more impressive when you consider activity from earlier this year. In the first quarter of 2018, "the median IPO size for U.S., VC-backed companies was $110 million," according to a Pitchbook analysis.

By the end of September, 173 U.S. IPOs had raised just over $45 billion, according to data from PwC. That's almost a 50% increase compared to the same period in 2017. And while 2018 has seen the strongest IPO activity since 2014, if the tech giants currently expected to go public in 2019 follow through, we’ll have a front-row seat to record-breaking activity.

As Bloomberg aptly described it: "The last time three 11-figure U.S. tech companies went public in the same year, Bill Clinton was president and Apple Inc. was worth less than 1% of Microsoft Corp. That was 2000, when, with air leaking out of the dot-com bubble, the company that made the Palm Pilot was valued at $21 billion."

Source:  https://angel.co/newsletters/a-record-breaking-year-for-ipos-111518

VC Funding: Turning it Down Might Be Good for Your Business

Why Not Getting VC Funding Might Be Better for Your Business

Here's why lifestyle businesses appeal to so many entrepreneurs.

From Entrepreneur.com by Jim Price, Nov. 6, 2018

When I started teaching a new venture creation elective to MBAs 15 years and over 2,000 students ago, I'd tell my student teams they each had to come up with -- and develop a compelling plan for -- a (theoretically) VC-backable startup concept. Made sense, right? MBAs wanted to be part of building the Next Big Thing, and venture capital-backed startups had driven a massive tech boom over the prior decade -- a wave I'd been lucky enough to ride.

But, it didn't take me long to ease up on that "it's gotta be VC-backable" requirement. Looking back, I had three reasons for that shift:

Startup lessons tend to apply across the board: First, folks immersed in the action-based learning exercise of mapping out a startup consistently reported back, after reentering the workforce, that they were able to apply those learnings and frameworks to almost any entrepreneurial -- or intrapreneurial -- experience in their careers.

Many people find low-tech businesses more appealing: Second, a lot of teams would come up with quite interesting but low-tech startup ideas. As I discussed in my recent article, "Who Would Invest in Your Startup, and Why?," low-tech businesses rarely represent interesting investments to VCs, primarily because of low valuation multiples (often due to limited growth upside).

A vanishingly small proportion of all startups raise VC financing: Finally, I looked at the numbers and realized that most startups -- indeed, even most very successful startups -- do not raise money from venture capitalists. According to statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau, 2017 saw approximately 556,000 business applications from corporations (what they call CBAs) in the U.S. (That's only about 18 percent of all new business applications, to make sure we're not counting sole proprietorships, two- to three-person professional services practices, and so on.) Meanwhile, Venture Monitor data from PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association tells us that, during the same period, U.S. "first financings" from VCs (as opposed to follow-on financings) numbered 2,676, or less than one-half of 1 percent of new corporations started. Now granted, first financings from VCs will tend to occur one to three years after a company first incorporates, but the statistics year-to-year are similar enough that the proportionality doesn't change in a meaningful way.

But, what I teach and how I teach it completely aside, my real "a-ha" has been a growing appreciation for non-VC-backable startups and how they can represent a genuinely appealing path for many entrepreneurs. Let's look at the positive side of the ledger for so-called lifestyle businesses:

Ownership and control
Raising equity financing from VCs -- or, for that matter, angels -- comes with a downside that few talk about: pressure to achieve a liquity event (sale of the company or IPO) within a fairly short time horizon (we're talking three to six years, typically). Since your company needs to be pretty massive to go public, we're really talking about pressure to sell the company. If you don't raise equity financing, you're in far better control of your own destiny. If you're in a reasonably protected niche, you've got the luxury of time to grow at a more leisurely pace. It's also up to you as to whether you want a board or directors and/or advisory board, and whom you want to invite to join.

Less dependency and greater chances of success
On the one hand, you'll need to fund your lifestyle businesses through savings, credit cards, friend-and-family loans, bank lines of credit, small business loans and the like. And while it may sound sexier to load up on lots of VC rocket fuel for your startup, as we've discussed, that funding path assumes you'll be one of the select few who's successful in attracting VC investment, and it comes with outside pressure to "go big or go home" and sell the company. So in general, you can think of well-crafted lifestyle businesses as being lower upside, but also lower risk. Taking the lifestyle business route, you stand a higher chance of getting airborne and achieving some level of success.

More options in life
If you own and control the business, you can decide the degree to which you choose to grow it aggressively to maximize cash flow or wealth, versus taking a more casual approach. Perhaps you'll decide to build the business to a certain plateau and then simply manage it for free cash flow that makes work an option. And, building a lifestyle business in this fashion by no means precludes eventually selling the company if you choose -- or, alternatively, handing it down to your kids some day.

You can still leverage technology.
Whereas a lot of lifestyle businesses are low-tech in nature, increasingly, we're finding that even those entrepreneurs are creatively leveraging technology to successfully launch, grow and become more profitable. Social media campaigns, search-optimized websites, customer newsletters and referral networks can all play a crucial role. And behind the scenes, smart lifestyle entrepreneurs are exercising the muscle of low-cost, online tools for everything from brand management to accounting and finance, inventory control, customer relationship management, point-of-sale tools and HR management.

Building a VC-backed startup can be bracing and both personally and financially rewarding. Been there, got the t-shirt. But, nobody's going to feel sorry for you if you get your lifestyle startup to the point where you've created life options such as hiring a general manager and calling in from the lake house a couple of times a week to check in.

Source:  https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/322417

Blockchain Startups

How To Grow Your Startup With Blockchain In 2019?

From TheStartup on Medium, by Mantra Malhotra, Nov. 1 2018

2019 is coming and Blockchain has gained a huge popularity in a very short period of time. Currently, it is helping reshape industries in multiple domains viz. Healthcare, finance, manufacturing, education, and government.

It will continue to evolve more and be used in many innovative ways. So, it is the peak time to leverage Blockchain for transforming your business and reshaping your target industries.

Before we start discussing how Blockchain technology can help your business grow in the near future, just take a close look at some interesting Blockchain stats:

As per Statista, it was expected in 2017 that the global Blockchain technology market would reach 339.5 million U.S. dollars in size and is expected to grow to 2.3 billion U.S. dollars by 2021.

According to the latest survey from IBM, it suggests that 65 percent of major global banks will use Blockchain technology within just three years. As per the reports by the same source, 17% of Banks will go to have full Blockchain product.

In terms of its usage, according to Statista, about 53 percent of respondents stated that their companies are working on a supply chain use case.

In this blog, we will discuss some ways using which you can build your own business with Blockchain technology and the respective apps.

Below given the list of such ways/strategies:

1) Connect with Blockchain

As a startup, first, you come up with a new and fresh business idea. It doesn’t matter how difficult your traditional startup business idea may seem, technology can make it look perfect and seamless.

Whether you want to start a business or scale the one you are already running, blockchain can help you in a number of ways. Some of these are listed below:

-> Help you with marketing via its transparency feature and accurate tracking.

-> Help you with funding through Blockchain ICOs.

-> Help you with security through its cryptographic system.

So use the above ideas and integrate them into your startup business which can make your next success story for a long period of time.

2) Use Blockchain-powered ICO

If you are a startup and have a great business idea, one that you are sure your target audience will love. But not having the necessary funds to advance your startup vision. Then no need to worry now as it is a common problem for all startup businesses. Traditional venture capital is actually difficult to achieve.

Today, the Blockchain technology initial coin offerings (ICO) throw good news for aspiring entrepreneurs. Start thinking of the ICOs as a way to democratize the initial financing. They provide a platform to raise funds from individual investors, assuring emerging entrepreneurs that no one is alone in this.

Few things to take care of when you are starting a business with Blockchain are mentioned below:

-> Refine your idea

-> Configure the blockchain for your new token

-> Receive the seed capital to finance your new company

A number of your competitors are already benefiting from these offers, attracting huge sums of money from the ICO driven by blockchain. According to Coindesk reports, in the second quarter of 2017, entrepreneurs raised about $ 291 million through ICO, compared to $ 187 million in traditional risk funds.

Make sure you have the technical expertise to consume all the benefits that ICO has to offer. For this, you can hire a developer to help you in this effort as they can make sure that your ICO driven by blockchain serves not only to raise funds but also as a tool to create steady growth.

3) Use crypto to run your ads

In order to grow your startup business, it is important to promote it properly. In an era of widespread online advertising frauds that attract attention, promoting your startup business can be challenging as building and executing it.

Desperate to promote their products, startups often bombard their customers with torrents of bulletins, coupons, practical guides, and innumerable advertisements.

The reasons usually lack attention because business leaders do not really know what exactly their clients want. They are simply waiting for their messages to attract enough customers.

However, crypto can professionally address groups of key customers with messages that resonate with them. Blockchain combines an excellent level of tracking and transparency with the ability to collect accurate data. Together with this, it guarantees the optimal frequency of ad display for each consumer.

4) Cryptography protects your startup

As we already know that cryptography can protect your data online, defend your e-commerce site, and protect your company’s files better than any other solution.

Powered by the digital signature, as well as by private and public keys, cryptography is an incredible solution for protecting your data in today’s digital business world. The reason behind its success is that it transmits information in codes. Thus, keeping the data illegible for unauthorized users.

Youngwhan “Nick” Lee, CEO of EcoVerse and founder of the W3C Blockchain community said that “Transaction logs are verified every time they move from one blockchain node to another,” and “That helps you track and review your audits. Simple and seamless fashion.”

However, you can take the cryptography beyond the protection of the data of your startup. It can help authenticate your potential customers, separating real buyers from cybercriminals.

Some major blockchain apps are listed below that can help your business:

- Apps for Notary: Uproov

- Apps for Distributed cloud storage: Storj

- Apps for Supply chain communications

- Apps for Smart Contracts

- Apps for Payments and money transfers

- Apps for Digital identity

- Apps for Networking & IOT

- Apps for Gift cards: Gyft Block

Conclusion:

So far we have seen the list of strategies/ways in which your startup can build a great business. Using the above-mentioned ideas, it will help you quickly develop blockchain applications to redefine your startup business networks.

In addition, by hiring a reliable blockchain web development company such as ValueCoders, you can achieve this goal.

At ValueCoders, we have a proficient team of Blockchain web developers who have successfully delivered more than 4200 projects to more than 500 happy customers along with their expert software testing services around the world.

Source: https://medium.com/swlh/how-to-grow-your-startup-using-blockchain-in-2019-44d4e6682147

Top funded blockchain startups & companies by total funding raised:

	Number of  Funding  Rounds	Total  Funding  Amount
Coinbase	7	$525.3M
Circle	5	$246M
Qulian Technology	3	CN¥1.5B
Bitfury Group	5	$170M
HashCash Consultants	3	$150M
Figure	2	$100M
Blockchain Industries Inc	1	$100M
Oasis Labs	5	$90M
Ledger	4	$85.1M
High Fidelity	5	$72.9M

Venture Capital Funding for Coinbase - $300 Million

Venture Capital Funding for Coinbase in $300M Series E Round

From VCnewsdaily.com 2018-10-30

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange, has raised $300 million in Series E funding.

According to Fortune, Coinbase, the most popular cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., announced on Tuesday a massive Series E venture capital funding round that values the company at $8 billion.

The company announced the $300 million investment in a blog post, which said the venture capital funding is being led by New York-based Tiger Global, and will be used to accelerate global expansion and the offering of more cryptocurrencies.

"We see hundreds of cryptocurrencies that could be added to our platform today and we will lay the groundwork to support thousands in the future," wrote Coinbase Chief Operating Officer Assif Hirji in the post.

Currently, Coinbase only offers Bitcoin and a handful of other cryptocurrencies, in part due to concerns that many digital currencies may be securities that must be registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The latest venture capital funding round, which follows a $100 million round in August of 2017, is being led by New York-based Tiger Global with contributions from Y Combinator Continuity, Wellington Management, Andreessen Horowitz, and Polychain Capital among others.

A source close to Coinbase told Fortune the company will also be bringing on other investors in the near future via a secondary offering worth $200 million or more. This offering would serve as a vehicle for some employees and early investors to cash in their shares, and would not change the overall amount of venture capital funding raised by Coinbase.

The Series E venture capital funding round also points to Coinbase possibly going public in 2019. While the company hasn't discussed a specific timeline to go public, CEO Brian Armstrong recently stated he would like to run a public company.

Source: https://vcnewsdaily.com/coinbase/venture-capital-funding/thzywhvhrd

Funding for Startups in the D.C. Area Reached $50 Million in October

Funding Roundup: D.C.-Area Startups Raised $50M in October

By Kieran McQuilkin - October 31, 2018
Topic: Funding for Startups

October was another quiet month volume-wise for DMV term sheets, with just one high-value deal moving big money into the local startup scene and several around $4 million and $5 million. At least 11 D.C. metro-area startups (including Baltimore) raised a combined $50 million in funding, led by an eight-figure venture round by Bethesda data analytics company Aledade.

The biggest tech funding deal came from D.C.-based sales software company Afiniti, which quietly raised $130 million in a Series D round, valuing it at $1.6 billion and making it the metro area’s newest unicorn. Since it was founded in 2016, it aged out of our startup roundup, but was a notable capital infusion nonetheless.

A few investment groups got in on the action as well, with the opening of a $300 million fund for a District-based venture capital firm and the closing of a Vienna firm’s first outside fund of $250 million.

FYI, we cover startup funding news in the DC Inno Beat newsletter every weekday. Stay on top of who’s getting funded by signing up here. See you in the inbox.

Below are the 11 local startups that raised capital in October.

Aledade, a Bethesda-based data analytics software company that helps doctors cut costs on readmissions, raised $23 million in new venture funding. Palo Alto-based Meritech Capital Partners led the round, contributing $15 million. The new money is a continuation of a prior round, and it adds to a $23 million round late last year.

On-demand technology repair company Fixt hauled in $6.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by San Francisco-based Precursor Ventures and U.S. Cellular, with participation from Naples Technology Ventures and additional existing investors. The Baltimore-based startup previously raised a $1.4 million seed round in early 2016.

Columbia, Md.-based Zentail, which helps small retailers manage their e-commerce operations across websites like Amazon and eBay, raised $5 million. Initialized Capital led the Series A round for the 3-year-old startup, with participation from FundersClub. It has previously raised $1.2 million in seed funding.

Baltimore startup Hunt a Killer, which sells subscription boxes with mystery puzzles is seeking up to $5 million in venture capital to support customer growth and new products. It expects to have 50,000 customers by yearend. Last month, the company also announced a long-term $8 million funding deal from Clearbanc.

UMB-born biotech startup Breethe has raised at least $3.5 million of a $5 million funding round toward its quest to create artificial lungs. It spun out of the university in 2014 and is backed by more than $5 million in previous funding, including a $3 million round reported in December last year.

D.C.-based nonprofit edtech startup CommonLit is continuing its blockbuster growth with a $3.5 million grant from Google. In June this year, CommonLit nabbed $4 million in funding from backers including AT&T, Teach for America, the EPIC Foundation, Arthur Rock Foundation and others.

Bethesda-based cybersecurity startup Syncurity closed a $2 million round of investment. The new funding was led by the Maryland Technological Development Corporation, better known as TEDCO, which has made a variety of startup investments. Syncurity, founded by JP Bourget in 2014, raised an undisclosed seed round in 2014 and $380,000 in 2016.

Byte Back, a nonprofit that offers technology training and job placement to underserved populations in the D.C. area, is expanding its services to Baltimore with a $775,000 grant from TD Bank. The grant came as part of the inaugural TD Ready Challenge, which this year focused on financial security and awarded the same total to 10 organizations in the U.S. and Canada.

D.C.-based voice app creator XAPP Media raised at least $750,000 from seven investors in a maximum $2 million equity round, according to SEC filings. The company has launched and manages over 1,000 apps on Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Microsoft’s Catana. It’s no stranger to fundraising, having hauled in $11.3 million in capital since 2014, according to a Crunchbase tally.

Maryland-based AI startup RedShred was awarded a $745,000 Small Business Innovation Research Phase 2 grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant will be provided over 18 months for development and commercialization of its technology, which analyzes and produces summaries of lengthy proposal documents for government contractors, grant researchers and universities. The company previously was awarded a $225,000 Phase 1 SBIR grant in 2016.

David Adler, founder and CEO of event-planning platform BizBash Media, along with his company and family invested over $500,000 in D.C.-based startup Goodshuffle. Goodshuffle launched four years ago and makes a software tool designed for event rental, production and entertainment companies to manage inventory, track sales and streamline operations.

A pair of investment companies made moves in October as well:

D.C. venture capital firm Updata Partners opened a $300 million raise for its latest fund. The fund, which targets later-stage companies and provides growth funding, has invested in several D.C.-area startups, including real estate platform Homesnap and content creation platform Storyblocks. According to its website, the VC firm has raised $750M in committed capital and invested in more than 40 companies.

Vienna-based growth equity firm Aldrich Capital Partners closed on its first outside fund, raking in $256 million. The investment company had previously used a self-funded $50M to invest in several startups, including Cofense, which sold for $400 million this year. Aldrich partners said the fund will be aimed at companies in healthcare IT, fintech and software that are still led by their founders and haven’t yet raised institutional funding.

Source: https://www.americaninno.com/dc/funding-dc/funding-roundup-d-c-area-startups-raised-50m-in-october/