Ever since its inception in 2009, cryptocurrencies have rapidly gained the popularity that it has begun to affect the economy of some countries. Today, all over the world, it’s not uncommon to overhear people chatting about cryptocurrency or related topics.
A sizeable chunk of world’s most anticipated fintech startups emerged from Europe in the past few years are Bitcoin and cryptocurrency-related. Moreover, the adoption and utilisation of cryptocurrencies will transform the way we do business.
Having said that, many startups are harnessing the power of blockchain and cryptocurrency to transform existing industries and solve the problems in creative ways. In this regard, let’s take a look at startups in the cryptocurrency space. Here is a list of ten European cryptocurrency startups we curated with the help of Dealroom to watch in 2019.
BitFury Group (Amsterdam)
Funding: €155M
Founders: Valery Nebesny, Valery Vavilov
Bitfury is the full-service bitcoin and blockchain technology company. Founded in 2011, Bitfury is the leading security and infrastructure provider for the Bitcoin Blockchain. In addition to that, Bitfury also designs and produces innovative hardware that keeps cryptocurrencies, and blockchains secure.
Ledger (Paris)
Funding: €72.7M
Founders: Eric Larchevêque, Joel Pobeda, Nicolas Bacca, Thomas France
Founded in 2014, Ledger develops security and infrastructure solutions for cryptocurrencies as well as blockchain applications for both individual and companies alike. Earlier this year, the company launched new cryptocurrency hardware wallet ‘Nano X. It has‘Ledger Live Mobile App’ through which users can seamlessly manage their tokens.
Blockchain (England)
Funding: €63.6M
Founders: Ben Reeves, Nicolas Cary, Peter Smith
This web-based platform helps individuals and companies to have an easy and safe way to access cryptocurrency. It is backed by leading investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Google Ventures.
SETL (London)
Funding: €36.4M
Founders: Peter Randall
SETL is an initiative to deploy a multi-asset, multi-currency institutional payment and settlements infrastructure based on blockchain technology. Moreover, it enables market participants to move cash and assets directly between each other, facilitating the immediate and final settlement of market transactions.
Gem (Venice)
Funding: €19.1M
Founders: Micah Winkelspecht
Gem makes investing in crypto easy, and accessible to all. The app gives crypto enthusiasts a single entry point for tracking all their crypto investments and net worth. Additionally, it offers curated discovery of new tokens and decentralized apps, and a connection to the larger crypto community with a secure universal wallet coming in 2019.
Luno Money (London)
Funding: €12.7M
Founders: Marcus Swanepoel, Pieter Heyns, Timothy Stranex, Carel van Wyk
Founded in 2013, Luno offers products and services that make it safe and easy to buy, store and learn about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. The company is working on a vision to upgrade the world to a better financial system.
Bitstamp (London)
Funding: €11.3M
Founders: Damijan Merlak, Nejc Kodric
Bitstamp is an online bitcoin marketplace that allows people from all around the world to safely buy and sell bitcoins. It is based out of London and has additional offices in Luxembourg and Berkeley, California.
Bitwala (Berlin)
Funding: €6.4M
Founders: Benjamin Jones, Jan Goslicki, Jörg von Minckwitz
The company is on a mission to disrupt banking by building an account to seamlessly transition between the cryptocurrency and fiat worlds. It offers a bank account connected to crypto. You can manage everyday banking, trade cryptocurrencies and also store bitcoins using the same account.
Elliptic (London)
Funding: €6.4M
Founders: Adam Joyce, James Smith, Tom Robinson
This platform identifies illicit activity on the bitcoin blockchain and provides actionable intelligence to financial institutions and law enforcement agencies to reduce bitcoin transaction risk. Elliptic makes cryptocurrency transaction activity more transparent and accountable.
breadwallet (Zurich)
Funding: €5.8M
Founders: Aaron Voisine, Adam Traidman
breadwallet provides wallet to store send and receive money anytime, anywhere, with complete financial privacy with no sign-ups, logins or personal information required. With over 2.5 million users in 170+ countries, and protecting over $6 billion, BRD is the world’s largest and most trusted cryptocurrency wallet.
Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup world.
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