R3's Venture Development program — a gateway into our ecosystem

R3 and its ecosystem are working to change the world of business for the better.

We recognize that technology benefits are best realized with a network effect, where industry participants come together — and that strength in numbers holds for both benign and challenging market conditions.

Adoption of new technology is often driven by innovative startup firms. While these firms benefit from their pinpoint focus, agility, lack of legacy technology and income streams to protect, maintaining their business in the current climate can still be extremely challenging. But digital technologies will play a critical role in helping businesses evolve and emerge from the current crisis, and innovation must not be stifled.

We are therefore pleased to share more information about our support for early stage companies as part of R3’s Venture Development program.

What is R3’s Venture Development program?

It takes time to develop, deploy and build a user-base for new technology, even in favorable conditions, and extended timelines can put even the most innovative businesses under short term operating and financial pressure.

R3 leads the largest enterprise blockchain ecosystem in the world, comprised of hundreds of firms building and deploying applications on Corda — known as CorDapps — as well as institutions collectively exploring and embracing this technology to solve real-world problems.

Corda’s strength is derived from its community, which includes a diverse range of start-ups from a myriad of industries — from insurance to education, supply chain finance to payment messaging — building and deploying apps for customers across the globe. More than 250 startups are currently enrolled in our program, and more than half of these are already building an enterprise blockchain app for their industry on Corda.

We believe we have a responsibility to support the firms helping us to deliver on our combined mission to establish Corda as the new platform for global commerce.

R3's Venture Development program supports early stage companies with product and go-to-market strategy — sharing resources, educational content and access to our networks of mentors, industry SMEs, technical experts and investors to accelerate teams from zero to one.

Now, more so than ever before, we recognize the importance and value of partnership and endeavor to support the entrepreneurs in our ecosystem. We also have the capacity to provide funding to promising startups through our Corda Development Fund.

These firms are building brilliant, use-case specific products and solutions on Corda for a range of industries. We want to help sustain and support them as they navigate the current economic climate, which in turn is critical to maintaining the Corda’s unrivaled traction in this space.

Just a few examples of our support for early stage companies to date include:

Through the Corda: Call to Action campaign we’re helping trade finance company NU Credits to alleviate COVID-related challenges with $30,000 of development services to accelerate its platform build.

Schrocken, a startup helping life sciences manufacturers gain control over their supply chains and production process, has accelerated its go-to-market strategy through our industry expertise, mentors and introductions to customers.

We’re helping VALK, a company that digitizes the issuance and offering of unlisted assets, with technical support and go-to-market capacity through our sales teams.

Bond180, which offers data-driven solutions to fixed income investors, has entered the partner accelerator program of F10 and benefits from R3 support as an Entrepreneur in Residence.

We’ve supported Aerotrax, a startup tracing the historical lifecycle of aircraft parts, since university with support and advice ranging from early app design through business modeling and go-to-market strategy.

At R3 we understand that our ecosystem is stronger working together in a time of crisis. And we want our partners to know: we’re with you all the way.

How can I find out more?

If you are an early stage company that is working with enterprise blockchain technology and would like to apply to join R3's Venture Development program, please send us your profile or fill out our questionnaire.