In the world of emerging technology, Blockchain seems to be the one getting more attention. Undoubtedly, it holds the potential to revolutionise several sectors of the economy, starting with the banking and insurance sectors.
Still relatively unfamiliar to the general public, the Blockchain technology introduces a new powerful pattern which has not been fully exploited yet. At present, there are obvious applications like transfer of digital cash with bitcoin, but it’s just a beginning. Many Blockchain experts believe that many use cases will emerge with time.
Despite the fluctuations in the blockchain industry, several startups are implementing the technology, which is changing at a rapid pace. Especially, the European market is taking some serious steps to implement blockchain tech.
With the help of Dealroom, we’ve rounded up 8 interesting examples of France-based companies using blockchain technologies.
Ledger (Paris)
Funding: €70.1M
Founders: Eric Larchevêque, Joel Pobeda, Nicolas Bacca, Thomas France
Founded in 2014, Ledger is a leader in security and infrastructure solutions for cryptocurrencies and blockchain applications.  Headquartered in Paris, Verizon, New York, San Francisco and Hong Kong, Ledger has a team of 200 professionals developing a variety of products and services to safeguard cryptocurrency assets for individuals and companies – including the Ledger hardware wallets line already sold in 165 countries.
iExec (Lyon)
Funding: €11.2M
Founders: Gilles Fedak, Haiwu He
Founded in 2016, iExec is creating the internet of the future by developing the first Blockchain-based, fully distributed cloud computing platform. This platform aims to provide blockchain-based distributed applications, a scalable, secure and easy access to the computing resources required for their execution. It uses the blockchain to organize a market network where everyone can monetize their servers, applications, and data-sets.
Stratumn (Paris)
Funding: €8.6M
Founders: Francois Dorleans, Richard Caetano, Sebastien Couture, Stephan Florquin
Stratumn is a network technology company that partners with large organizations to secure their critical process data. The company’s technology offers traceability, transparency and data integrity, thus reducing costs and complexity of the interactions between partners, customers, auditors, and regulators. The solution offers a common audit trail, secured by blockchains and cryptography, where stakeholders can collaborate without revealing their private and confidential data.
Coinhouse (Paris)
Funding: €2.4M
Founders: Nicolas Louvet
Services available on both online and at a Paris-based store, Coinhouse is the trusted partner for investors looking to understand, acquire, sell and securely store crypto assets. Right now, this platform serves more than 100,000 users from across Europe.
Blockchain Studio (Neuilly-sur-Seine)
Funding: €1.9M
Founders: Corentin Denoeud, Vincent Le Gallic
Blockchain Studio is a software company dedicated to accelerating the Blockchain adoption. By creating a suite of applications, the company strive to increase the knowledge on Blockchain, facilitate the usage of this technology and to accelerate the implementation of DApps for businesses.
Acinq (Paris)
Funding: €1.6M
Founders: Pierre-Marie Padiou, Fabrice Drouin
ACINQ is one of the leading companies working on Bitcoin scalability. In fact, the company has built the Lightning Network, a scalable instant payment network for the Bitcoin blockchain.
Woleet (Rennes)
Funding: €1M
Founders: Gilles Cadignan, Vincent Barat
Woleet is a multi-usage platform leveraging Blockchain technology to secure what is really important for your business. This platform allows the user to timestamp data by anchoring it in the Bitcoin blockchain. Notably, Woleet uses Bitcoin’s ledger to democratize security applied to sensitive data.
MatchUpBox (Montpellier )
Funding: €450K
Founders: Caroline Dumortier, Caroline Dumortier, Didier Collin de Casaubon, Fabien Bucamp, Jorick Lartigau, Pauline Feaugas
Matchupbox proposes Digital Identity and Personal Data services around  PikcioChain, a proprietary modular permission-based blockchain. It’s worth mentioning that the PikcioChain creates an intelligent, secure and unique transactional ecosystem.
The company builds an ecosystem to facilitate on-demand, secure access to Personal Data and Digital Identity via its PikcioChain, so the background and personal information verification check no longer needed to be undertaken from the ground up every time. This reduces the overall cost of KYC, remove inefficiencies, enhance security and privacy, improving customer experience.
Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup world.
These 10 standout tech startups have been selected for Future Hamburg Award 2019