T-Block Accelerator, the inaugural accelerator program under the aegis of the Telangana Blockchain District today announced its partnership with three of the leading global blockchain protocol companies- Matic Network, Harmony and æternity as the platform partners. A first of its kind public blockchain accelerator organised by Telangana government and Tech Mahindra and run by IBC Media, an innovation management company, T-Block Accelerator is aimed at startups that have a strong blockchain use-case; thereby accelerating the start-up growth and therefore contributing to the growth of the overall industry.
The platform integrators are fast, secure scalable, next-gen blockchain protocols that are equipped to help startups build scalable and decentralised solutions to everyday problems. The Matic Network – India’s homegrown public blockchain network, will provide a high scale platform for decentralised applications. The æternity Blockchain, engineered by Yanislav Malahov – the Godfather of Ethereum, provides scalable smart contracts for decentralised applications. The Harmony Protocol, a Silicon Valley-based sharded Proof-of-Stake blockchain, will give fintech startups the ability to create & transact digital assets on its global ledger with instant confirmation and near-zero transaction fees.
With the support and expertise of these protocols as innovation enablers in the blockchain realm, T-block will provide the Indian startups that make it into the boot camp phase with technical support to build their solutions on their platform, GTM (Go-To-Market) support in Europe, technology implementation support and grants on a case-on-case basis.
Jaynti Kanani – CEO & Co-founder, Matic Network, commented, “As a part of the partnership, we will extend the Matic Network and our in-house expertise to mentor and train the participating startups. The startups will be familiarised and trained to use the platform based on their projects’ requirements.” He also added that this is just a facet of Matic’s involvement. “In addition to mentoring the startups, our in-house experts will also join the judges’ panel to select the startups that will go on to the next level of acceleration and aid with financial grants to support the startups through their journey,” said Kanani.
Nikola Stojanow, CEO of AE Ventures and CBO of æternity added, “India has a booming blockchain ecosystem and we are happy to be a part of this growth story. Having concluded the first edition of Starfleet India Accelerator recently, we are excited to join this initiative by the Telangana government and Tech M for T-Block and look forward to supporting the startups with our GMT access in the European countries.”
“At Harmony, we are confident of India’s technology prowess and are excited to enable the creation and innovation of highly-scalable & secure FinTech solutions from India through our partnership with T-Block Accelerator. We are happy to support them with the technical expertise to build products & applications on our platform and aid them with grants that will provide the necessary impetus for their growth in this journey. ” Sahil Dewan, Co-Founder, Harmony commented.
These collaborations with prominent players like the Matic Network, æternity, and Harmony for initiatives like T-block will truly make an impact on Indian startups and innovators who are making their way through this realm and strengthen Telangana Government’s endeavor to make Telangana as the ‘Blockchain Capital of the World’.
Rama Devi Lanka (Director, Emerging Technologies & Officer on Special Duty, ITE&C Department, Government of Telangana) said “Building synergies between all the stakeholders in this ecosystem will propel India’s blockchain revolution and we are happy that our T-Block Accelerator is partnering with these platform protocols to strengthen this ecosystem. As the first government-led blockchain accelerator, this partnership is a true testimony to how a synergy between the government body and private players can support innovators in their entrepreneurial journey and will help build, scale, and create amazing opportunities for startups. We’re excited to see how the startups will benefit from these partnerships.”
With go-to-market support from Tech Mahindra, infrastructure support from the State Government of Telangana, innovation deal-flow support from IBC Media, and platform support from the Matic Network, æternity, and Harmony, the startups to be shortlisted are stepping into a growth-fueled environment. Launched in February 2020, the T-Block Accelerator has completed its deal flow and selected start-ups will undergo a one-week boot camp, followed by a four-month-long intensive training program.