Dutch blockchain startup that gives ‘invisible’ children digital identities raises €1.2M funding

The Netherlands-based blockchain startup Tykn, which helps ‘invisible’ refugees to gain a digital identity has recently received an investment of €1.2 million from Dutch IT entrepreneur Johan Mastenbroek. As informed by Tykn, the investment will be mostly directed to scaling up the team and product development.

Tykn – helps the invisible with tech

By using smart technology and blockchain the startup is developing a digital identity management platform, which allows public and private institutions to issue and verify digital identity credentials. It is an innovative way to share and request personal data proofs, which protects identities against getting lost. A solution for the 1.2 billion people worldwide who have never had an identifying document or whose proof of existence got lost because of inefficient identity registration, wars or disasters.

New investments

Johan Mastenbroek was also the investor in Eccentrade that recently went bankrupt. Now, both Tykn and Mastenbroek are excited about the collaboration. “With Johan Mastenbroek as an investor we do not just gain a financial partner, but also an experienced one. He has the essential knowledge about blockchain and digital identity cases, which helps us to develop our platform further,” said Tey Al-Rjula, CEO of Tykn. “This collaboration is an important step in getting closer to the world as we envision it: a world where identities are portable, private and secure, so that no one has to lose access to their identity ever again.”

Tey Al-Rjula has personally experienced what it is like to be ‘invisible’. “My birth certificate got lost during the Gulf war in Kuwait. I lived as an ‘invisible’ man in the Netherlands when my work contract expired and I ended up in an asylum centre. There I met many Syrian refugees who had also lost their identity and faced the same problems as I did. As without an identity you do not have access to many basic needs and therefore not to your human rights.” This personal experience gave Al-Rjula the inspiration to found Tykn, together with social entrepreneurs Khalid Maliki and Jimmy J.P. Snoek.

IT entrepreneur Mastenbroek is also delighted about the collaboration: “I strongly believe in the principles and ideas of Tykn. They work together with international organisations, with whom they can provide a solution to a global problem and create a future of opportunities instead of a future of problems.”

Additionally, Mastenbroek is pleased with the addition of Tykn to his investment portfolio: “I mainly invest in IT & Innovation companies with a 3 million-plus revenue and a niche market focus, whereby I focus on management buy-outs and growth investments. My mission is to lift these innovate enterprises to the next level market position, business model and size. As such, Tykn fits well with the other companies I invests in, such as Ledger Leopard, Loek! and Finturi.”

How Tykn works?

Tykn’s digital identity management platform offers an innovative identity registration system for public and private institutions, with which they can efficiently share, verify and request digital identity credentials. Users are provided with an app, a digital identity wallet, that works on every mobile device and allows them to digitally access services from those institutions in a private and secure manner. It provides a self-sovereign identity to all so that no one has to lose their legal identity ever again. Based out of The Hague, Tykn aims to create a future of opportunities for all, because people matter.

Also recently, Tey el-Rjula was awarded a funding amount of $50,000 in during the global finals of Chivas Venture, an international competition for social entrepreneurs. The event was held at the TNW Conference 2018 in the first week of May 2019.