Singapore government-backed accelerator raises another $16M for blockchain startups
Tribe Accelerator, backed by government agency Enterprise Singapore, has raised another 21.5 million Singapore dollars (~$16 million) for participating blockchain startups.
The funds are for Tribe’s second batch of nine startups from around the world, who are building solutions to solve “real-world problems” with blockchain technology, according to an announcement shared with The Block on Monday.
The nine startups are Affle, AID:Tech, Aqilliz, Bluzelle, Dimuto, Eximchain, Pilab, Torus and WhiteCoat, across social welfare programs, digital retail, data privacy, supply chain, cybersecurity, and healthcare services.
AID:Tech, for instance, offers an interoperable decentralized digital ID protocol, while WhiteCoat offers healthcare services via its blockchain-enabled app - It aims to enhance the verification of patient identity and prevent exposure to medical records in the event of a cybersecurity breach, per the announcement.
“One of our goals is to drive the adoption of blockchain at a national level as countries like Singapore pursue their Smart Nation ambition,” said Ng Yi Ming, managing partner of Tribe Accelerator, adding: “Mighty Jaxx, one of our participating companies from Batch I is already supporting OpenCerts, a government initiative in Singapore, that enables the issue and validation of tamper-resistant digital certificates.”
For its first batch of startups, Tribe raised 16.8 million Singapore dollars (~$12.30 million) in April. Today’s round brings the total to 38.3 million Singapore dollars (~$28 million). Launched in Dec. 2018, Tribe recently brought in major firms as its corporate partners, including Citi Bank, BMW Group Asia, Intel, and Nielsen, among others.
