The start-up that brought blockchain to Indonesian elections enters India

Belgian firm SettleMint, which has a sizeable presence in Europe, West Asia and Singapore, expects 20-25% of its revenues coming from India in the next three years

The use of blockchain technology in business is still quite nascent in India, though there are several compelling cases studies globally that have raised hopes that the technology will be widely adopted in the country going forward. In fact, several companies are now offering blockchain-based solutions in the Indian market, as they see great growth potential ahead. 

The latest one to launch in India is SettleMint, a Belgium-based blockchain start-up that already caters to various segments in Europe, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.

Founded in 2016 by Matthew Van Niekerk and Roderik van der Veer, SettleMint believes blockchain technology will benefit both large and small organisations. The firm makes it easy for developers to build blockchain technologies into their existing applications. 

Blockchain is a digital ledger that decentralises a database across many computers so that records cannot be altered without altering all the subsequent blocks that have been created. The technology is known for its use in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

SettleMint claims that its core technology, ‘Mint’, helps in integrating blockchain technologies into an application in three hours flat. Mint includes a suite of APIs (Application Program Interfaces), developer tools and frameworks that enable any software developer to build new blockchain-based applications or integrate blockchain functionalities with existing solutions.

“We've been working now for over three and a half years, building the product, and are engaged with about 35 different companies right now,” said Matthew Van Niekerk, CEO of SettleMint. "Standard Chartered Bank, for example, is using the technology for (its) asset tokenisation platform." 

The SettleMint technology made a major breakthrough in Indonesia’s national elections earlier this year as part of “Democracy Anchored”, a civil society initiative. It was able to aggregate 25 million of the 193 million votes cast in the Indonesian elections within hours after the polling stations closed on April 17. Indonesia still uses paper ballots for voting.  

All the votes were linked uniquely to a single version of the documents on which the voting was to be done, and sealed immutably in the blockchain. This ensured that all the votes cast make their way to this final document and cannot be tampered with. 

In May this year, research firm Gartner profiled SettleMint as one of the three “cool vendors in blockchain business”.

“We have 30 people globally and in the next three months, we will be around seven people in India…We expect 20-25 per cent of our revenues coming from India within the next three years,” said Shazad Fatmi, CEO, SettleMint (India). 

In July this year, a panel under the then Finance Secretary Subhash Garg had recommended banning private cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoins, but recommended promotion of distributed ledger technology (DLT). The most common use of DLT is blockchain technology which, in turn, is the technology on which cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are developed.  

Van Niekerk says India's clear stand on blockchain and cryptocurrency is positive for businesses like his. “What everybody thinks is that as an entrepreneur you're a risk taker. But in fact, good entrepreneurs are the ones who are able to manage risk well,” he added. 

Van Niekerk said the most interesting areas in which SettleMint had worked were unlocking dead capital through land registrations, helping non-government organisations (NGOs) track funding and maintain transparency, and vehicle lifecycle management. In India, says Fatmi, Supply chain, especially in the pharmaceuticals segment, could be a potential opportunity as the sector battles with the challenge of counterfeit drugs. 

SettleMint has secured 1.8 million euros funding from Medici Ventures, and a research and development grant worth 1.591 million euros from VLAIO, a government agency entrusted with the task of implementing the economic, innovation and enterprise policy in Flanders, Belgium. The start-up has also received a 1.8 million-euro grant from Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase II of the European Union. 

In India, SettleMint has signed two contracts -- one with a legal technology player, and another with a large tech firm that operates across sectors. “An encouraging sign in India is the importance that several states are giving on the use of this technology. As of now, at least 14 Indian states have shown keen interest to adopt the technology by experimenting with the technology or coming out with blockchain policies, white papers and so on,” added Fatmi. 

The company has also met officials from Telangana, which has launched a blockchain district with an aim of incentivising blockchain start-ups, apart from providing land at subsidised rate and so on. 

Last year, the government of Andhra Pradesh signed agreements with Malaysia-based crypto currency player Belfrics, and New York-based blockchain technology firm ConsenSys with the objective of exploring the use of the technology in governance and bolstering the local blockchain ecosystem.