Our second cohort has a range of decentralised solutions across fintech, identity, insurance, data analytics, networking and data analytics. What draws them together is they are focused on solving real world problems today, both within the crypto space, and in broader industry. We are terming this theme “web 2.5”. In the journey towards web 3.0, there is a reciprocal relationship between infrastructure development and applications. With the past few years focus on protocol innovation, the time is now to incubate credible teams to deliver real world usage.
Over the coming weeks we will be working closely with the teams on pitch, product and customer adoption. Read on for a preview of the businesses and teams, and get in touch if you would like to know more.
Biconomy: Scalable Relayer Infrastructure for Blockchain Transactions
Problem
In the Internet’s early days, companies like Shopify could not have achieved the scale they did in the 2010s. Building required spending money on servers and obtaining money licenses in major jurisdiction across the world.
The lack of middleware to access infrastructure is something the next generation of web startups like DeFi, log-in, gaming and other on-chain applications are struggling with now. The current workflow requires up to 22 steps before the user can fully onboard. This dramatically reduces engagement for end users.
Solution
Making crypto payments easy for dApp developers and users.
Biconomy is building payment middleware for decentralised applications. Developers can seamlessly connect to a relayer network infrastructure. This brings down the 22 step process to develop and use a decentralised application to just a few steps. Biconomy provides a network of relayers accessible via APIs or a client side javascript SDK. The transactions are free for the end users and only charge is to the developer on a monthly basis with that fee being treated as user acquisition cost. Developers can limit the meta transaction usage at application level, API level and user level to avoid abuse of their network. The transaction data cannot be altered by anybody including Biconomy as user signature is encrypted (EIP712).
Bond180: Data-Driven Solutions for Debt Markets
Problem
Bond180 recognises Investment returns are at record lows, so the average cost of 2% per year to manage and administer portfolios is no longer acceptable. The market participants are being forced to innovate as banks can no longer support antiquated markets effectively.
Financial markets rely on trust and transparency provided by middlemen, however there is a clear lack of incentive alignment. We want to fix these fundamental problems through the use of data to provide clarity, DLT to enable trust, and disintermediation to ensure incentive alignment.
Solution
Working towards a more efficient debt issuance market.
Bond180 seeks to revolutionise the way debt is issued. By focusing on data that informs decision makers within investment businesses, a sophisticated landscape of demand for assets is created. Through machine-learning, capital is connected with those in need in a dynamic, efficient way to create the future state of financial markets. Bond180 creates a synthetic dataset representing latent unfulfilled demand for debt assets to encourage platform adoption. Initial focus is on alternative or private credit, a high growth segment within the asset management industry.
Bond180 expects to save 80% of the costs embedded in financial markets through our solution, with the savings shared between capital raisers and investors. In the context of the £trillion UK debt market, this represents a potential £16 billion cost saving per annum.
Crucible: Technology for the open metaverse
Problem
Non-digitised identity has proven unfit for the digital world. One of the most pronounced examples is the online gaming industry which has been a growing target for cyber criminals. They are posing as gamers infiltrating communities, stealing personal information as well as valuable in-game items. This is putting not just adults but mostly children under risk.
Solution
Improving in-game security through digital identity.
Crucible is creating a new digital identity model to improve authentication for economic avatars in gaming and mixed reality. The suit of browser extensions, mobile app and plugins for game engines and servers allow an Self-Sovereign Identity (SSI) to be easily used to upgrade a web application, video game, virtual world or IoT network to full SSI style verification including no passwords, cryptographically verifiable identity and uniquely encrypted traffic. Crucible is removing the development effort required to digitise and link offline and online identity.
Fardoe: Intelligent insurance ecosystem
Problem
There is an increasingly wide array of data sources available. Insurance companies risk falling behind as it is hard for them to coordinate the different sources and process the data on a timely and meaningful basis. Inefficient processes alongside ever growing pressure for companies to improve margins in Insurance are a recipe for disaster. There can often be bottlenecks in processing data, such as at popular renewal times, for example in reviewing contracts or checking compliance, which can mean lost or sub-optimal business and a higher risk of errors. As a result, many insurance companies end up paying £1m+ license fees to risk management companies affecting their bottom line.
Solution
Fardoe is developing an intelligent middleware enabling companies to connect to all of their data sources (internal and external) and to process and analyse it through one easy touchpoint with formats that are already familiar. The end goal is to improve internal workflows and processes without compromising on security. Fardoe offers a range of integrated modules such as Contract Wording Reviews and Exposure Management.
Nyctale: Blockchain analytics tools for crypto-assets
Problem
Readability of blockchain transactions is poor. The transactional networks are complex to analyze and require a computing intensive infrastructure coupled with advanced data science algorithms. The lack of interpretation standards adds up an additional layer of complexity as multiple providers are used and each have their way of operation. As a result regulators and businesses don’t have the access to the necessary tools to monitor those networks.
Solution
Nyctale develops advanced analytics tools processing blockchain transactions. The product includes advanced tools to analyse usages, measure value, and control money flows on these new transactional systems. Nyctale is targeting dApp providers looking to increase the performance and efficiency of their developments with rigorous impact evaluation approaches.
Developers can track the evolution of customers’ behaviours caused by everyday business activities like marketing campaigns, products release, secondary markets activity and more.
Primeflow: Unlock the power of your network, collaborate at scale
Problem
Conventional channels for both recruiting are overcrowded and have a horrendous signal-to-noise ratio. There is clearly a need for curation of viable options and distinguishing spam from quality leads. Referral programs are consistently among the most successful hiring channels, however, they often don’t reach the extended network of the company.
Solution
PrimeFlow enables private and scalable networks of scouts for talent and sales. The product is a web application for external referrals on a feature-level. It is built for external referrals and can handle chains of referrals, with automated tracking and payments for the successful scouts. The reputation system is key as it allows to curate leads and determine the success/importance of each scout in the network. It is based on sophisticated agent-based simulations, ensuring the quality of leads and disincentivizing spam. All previous track record and behaviour of all actors in the system is captured by a reputation score, which is then used to curate competing suggestions. Primeflow is built for cross-vertical use-cases from day 1.
Zinc: Automated reference checking. Hire the Best People – Faster
Problem
Hiring & onboarding staff is a lengthy, frustrating and costly process. Hiring processes for technical roles take on average 3 months, background checking takes another 28 days and it takes employees up to 6 months to reach break even point where they are bringing more value to companies than they expend.
40% of the companies approaching Zinc are working with out-of-date incumbent background checking providers. Another 60% of companies are doing checks manually or none at all.
Solution
Zinc is improving the hiring process by building automated referencing and background checking tools that put the candidates in control of their data, making the checks re-usable and offer companies data-driven candidate insights. The automated referencing & background checking tools bring transparency to the process. The checks can be collected at the click of a button. Then through algorithmic data analysis, Zinc gives clear candidate insights. Zinc brings onboarding processes down from months to days.
Please note: The information referenced above is sourced from the above named companies and is based on material that Outlier Ventures Operations Limited (“Outlier”) believes to be reliable. Outlier does not make any representation or warranty, expressed or implied as to the accuracy. Outlier has not reviewed any links including the above provided websites and does not take any responsibility for the content on these pages. Outlier Ventures Operations Limited is an appointed representative of Sapia Partners LLP which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
