Melonport AG Awarded as Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum

• World Economic Forum on Thursday announced its selection of the world’s 61 most promising Technology Pioneers 2018, the most diverse class of such pioneers ever.
• Companies were selected for their potential to “transform society and industry” and “shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” Fulvia Montresor of the World Economic Forum said.
• Melonport AG, which is building a decentralized tool for people to set up and manage investment funds in digital assets, made it to the selection for its contributions in the field of alternative finance.
• The full list of recognized Technology Pioneers can be viewed here

Zug (Switzerland), June 21, 2018– Melonport AG,the Zug-based Swiss company that builds blockchain software for crypto asset management, was selected among hundreds of candidates as one of the World Economic Forum’s “technology pioneers”. Melonport AG, founded by Mona El Isa and Reto Trinkler in July 2016, is one of the earlier projects in the blockchain space. The company is responsible for building the Melon protocol, the crypto asset management tool enabling people set up, operate and run their own crypto fund.

The World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers community are early-stage companies from around the world that are involved in the design, development and deployment of new technologies and innovations, and are poised to have a significant impact on business and society.

This year’s cohort is the most diverse ever, both geographically and in terms of gender. 25% are female-led, and a majority (54%) come from regions outside the United States and Silicon Valley, with each continent represented, barring Antarctica. Melonport is one of three Swiss companies making it into the cohort and the only Crypto Valley Zug based company. There is also a wide variety in the technologies the pioneers focus on: the focus technologies include artificial intelligence, big data and internet of things (IoT), biotechnology, blockchain, autonomous vehicles, cyber security, vertical farming and other agricultural advances, decentralised microgrids and robotics. The full list of technology pioneers can be found here.

Following its selection as Technology Pioneer, CEO Mona El Isa will be participating in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting of the New Champions. This meeting, also dubbed “Summer Davos” will be held in Tianjin, China, September 18–20. Many Pioneers will also attend the Annual Meeting in Davos, in January 2019, and continue to contribute to Forum initiatives in the course of the next two years.

“We welcome Melonport AG in this diverse group of technology pioneers,” says Fulvia Montresor, Head of Technology Pioneers at the World Economic Forum. “Melonport AG and its fellow pioneers are front and centre in shaping the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution and we believe they will be transforming society and industry in a positive way in the years to come.”

“The financial industry has been highly resilient to disruption by technology. But Melonport thinks that is set to change. We are excited by our vision of lower financial barriers to entry for aspiring asset managers, greater financial independence for society’s savers, and the provision of a safe and secure platform to further the adoption of a nascent asset class. Recognition of our work to date by the WEF is an honor, and one we fully aim to live up to in the future.” said Melonport CEO Mona El Isa.

The Technology Pioneers were selected by a selection committee of more than 60 academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporate executives. The committee based its decisions on criteria including innovation, potential impact and leadership. Past recipients include Airbnb, Google, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Palantir Technologies, Spotify, TransferWise, Twitter and Wikimedia.

All info on this year’s Technology Pioneers can be found here: http://wef.ch/techpioneers18

More information on past winners can be found here.

About World Economic Forum:The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. (www.weforum.org).

This blog post is subject to change as the research & development phase is ongoing. Melonport will aim to update blog-posts regularly to represent our latest thinking on a best-efforts basis but there may occasionally be time-lags between latest thinking and updated documentation. With this in mind, the author of this blog assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions in the content of this blog.