Stratumn has announced that it has raised €600,000 in funding to build and promote their Blockchain development platform.
The round is being led by the French VC firm Otium Venture, and includes Business Angels such as Ledger CEO and Maison du Bitcoin founder, Eric Larchevêque. This initial round will allow the team of 5 to grow to 12 people this year and establish its position as a leading provider of Blockchain solutions in France and Europe.
Stratumn was founded by Californiaborn software designer Richard Caetano, and Stephan Florquin, both deeply involved in the Bitcoin and Blockchain ecosystem since 2011. Previously, Caetano developed the popular Bitcoin ticker app btcReport, and recently published the book “Learning Bitcoin” (Packt Publishing). Florquin was previously Lead Developer at Paymium, a leading French bitcoin exchange.
Stratumn CEO Richard Caetano explains what lead him to start his company in Paris:
“The fertility of the French tech startup scene, the quality of engineers and the support of public institutions, make France an ideal place to build a startup.”
The Blockchain protocol appeared in 2009 with the invention of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. It allows for the creation of decentralized databases, which are infallible and transparent. At the cutting edge of computer science, Blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt a wide range of industry sectors, from finance, the public sector, health, industry and the arts.
Stratumn lowers the barriers to entry for enterprise developers to easily integrate the features of the Bitcoin Blockchain in their applications. Their platform delivers an API and a broad set of tools which enables features such as irrefutable proofofexistence of digital documents, securing business processes, as well as digital asset issuance. Stratumn has developed an open standard called Chainscript for recording states of data and workflows, and leverages the Blockchain’s ability to store data fingerprints and create immutable and verifiable proofs of their existence. A PlatformasaService (PaaS) offering, pricing is flexible and caters to independent developers to large enterprise.
“Stratumn offers a robust Blockchain development product, a first for the French market. Their PaaS platform opens up many opportunities for enterprise business process management”, explains Éric Larchevêque, Ledger CEO.
“The Blockchain’s ability to create trust without a central authority has the potential to disrupt nearly every industry and many will start to question the legitimacy of actors whose sole purpose was to provide third party trust. It’s the final link in the Uberisation chain” adds Bruno Raillard, Partner at Otium Venture.