6 Web3 companies from Central and Eastern Europe lead digital innovation

[ad_1]

The Central and Eastern European region has recently seen an increase in web3 companies and startups using blockchain technology, decentralized finance (DeFi) and other web3 technologies to create new and innovative solutions for a range of industries.

One of the most interesting areas of web3 in the Western Balkans is in the field of decentralized finance (DeFi). DeFi solutions use blockchain technology to create new financial instruments and platforms that are decentralized (meaning that no person or entity could remove or otherwise control access) and open to anyone, enabling greater financial inclusion and access to financial services for those who have historically been excluded from the traditional financial system.

Digital identity is another area where regional Web3 companies are making a big impact. Solutions include the implementation of blockchain technology to create decentralized and secure digital identities that can be used for a wide range of applications, such as online banking or e-commerce.

In this article, we take a look at some of the region’s Web3 startups and companies that are making waves in the industry.

Country: Croatia

Area: Blockchains

What they do: Shard Labs is an independent blockchain development agency operating out of Zagreb, Croatia and specializing in areas such as blockchain use case and technology development, custom blockchain development services, and token development.

The company aims to build digital products that require blockchain implementation, with a focus on automation and continuous delivery of software.

One part of the agency is called SpaceShard, which is a blockchain research and development laboratory working to connect zero-knowledge technology and bring it closer to mass adoption. One of the lab’s main goals is to create an incubator and accelerator to help not only existing but also new teams join the space with technical, business and marketing practices.

Country: Greece

Area: Web3 infrastructure

What they do: Mysten Labs is a web3 infrastructure company founded in Greece that develops tools that make web3 secure, reliable and ready for mass adoption. Build a foundational infrastructure to accelerate web3 adoption by bringing together the brightest minds in the industry to build the infrastructure and tools for a decentralized future for all.

The California-based company was launched in 2021 by five former engineers and leading managers of Meta (Facebook), with two Greek co-founders in its founding team. The company has big plans for Europe, starting with Greece as its main focal point.

“The reason why we chose Greece is because two of the two founders are from the country, it is easier for us to find talent from here, we know the universities and where to get this talent from and it made sense to start this process from here and expand further on across Europe,” Kostas Chalkias, one of the co-founders of Mysten Labs and its chief cryptographer, told The Recursive in an interview.

Last year, Mysten Labs raised $300 million in a Series B led by FTX Ventures and reached a valuation of more than $2 billion, with plans to use the remaining funds for said expansion and to continue building the basic infrastructure to power web3’s next wave of applications.

Country: Serbia

Zone: DeFi

What they do: Decenter is a Serbian-founded R&D center and project incubator focused on building products on the Ethereum platform. The company aims to build a more decentralized internet using web3 and blockchain technologies.

Some of his early projects include generative NFT art projects and blockchain games. Nowadays, the company is all about DeFi Saver, a web application for managing decentralized finance or DeFi.

As a core product, DeFi Saaver is a bootstrap product that allows management of various DeFi protocols from a single app with advanced features that are unique in the DeFi ecosystem. It provides users with a wide range of features, such as loan, loan, savings, leverage, and token trading, as well as 1-click loan refinancing and custom transaction creation by combining various actions.

As the company itself noted, “Imagine a world where people have complete control over their digital identities and their data, and a world where bots aren’t crawling our emails to deliver more targeted ads, and a world where companies don’t control every aspect of our online social life”.

Country: Bulgaria

Area: Blockchains

What they do: Quantirall, based in Varna, is a R&D lab for software and hardware, specializing in the development of customized end-to-end solutions in functional programming languages ​​with high scalability, fault tolerance and high performance capabilities such as Erlang, Elixir and Haskel.

The company’s core business is to develop custom Enterprise software, Blockchain solutions and IoT infrastructure. Quantall’s technical team consists of over 90 engineers for blockchain, backend, DevOps, web and mobile, embedded and hardware development.

The company has been active since 2016 with offices in Varna and Sofia and a global client base ranging from startups, scaleups to industry leaders and sectors such as fintech, telecommunications, healthcare, insurance, logistics, vending, retail, manufacturing and communication among others.

Country: Romania

Area: Blockchains

What they do: Beyond Enterprizes is a blockchain strategy consultancy founded in Romania, currently present in four continents and partner of more than 50 blockchain projects, including EOS, Bancor and HDAC, with a specific focus on insurtech, fintech and DeFi.

Founded in 2012, the firm has worked on projects that have reached a combined market capitalization of over $4 billion (as of August 2022), allowing it to expand its capabilities and move beyond strategic consulting and become a full-fledged partner to full service for strategy, software development and execution of products and services.

The company is also part of the global community of crypto funds and investors under the Blockchain Investors Consortium (BIC).

Country: Bulgaria

Zone: DeFi

What they do: Last but not least on our list, Bulgarian-founded DeFi change platform ChangeX combines the power of DeFI with CeFI compliant for an immersive experience that allows users to put Crypto, DeFi, and Banking under one roof.

The ChangeX platform focuses on DeFi Composability, which allows economic systems to interact with each other and create synergies to improve the probability of outcome.

ChangeX co-founders Nick Iliev and Gary Guerassimov have a rich history of developing successful fintech solutions, including xChange.bg, a Bulgarian cryptocurrency exchange, while also co-founders of HydraChain and LockTrip Nikola Alexandrov and Hristo Tenchev are part of the team, each of them bringing seven years of blockchain experience.

Last year, ChangeX’s initial coin offering (ICO) raised nearly $2 million and provided the team with financial backing for the next period of its development.

[ad_2]