Europe is quickly emerging as a hub for cutting-edge technology startups, with a number of nascent ventures making a name for themselves in a variety of sectors. Although funding may be harder to come by for some startups due to recent economic setbacks, many are still pushing the boundaries of innovation in areas such as big data analytics, quantum computing, finance, and investing.
Among the startups attracting attention is cheqd, a UK-based digital identity firm operating in the Web3 space. The company has raised $2.6 million in funding with the aim of creating a decentralized internet that allows individuals and businesses to undertake legally necessary identity checks while maintaining their privacy. By allowing users to create a verifiable digital identity that can be shared with organizations to satisfy Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements, cheqd aims to eliminate the need for repetitive identity checks.
Another company making waves is AngelBlock, a decentralized fundraising platform based in Poland. Rather than securing funding for itself, AngelBlock is dedicated to helping other startups secure funding quickly. Its platform enables investors to vote on startups’ release timelines regarding cryptocurrency token sales and other milestones, ensuring that capital release is tied to specific milestones to protect investors and founders alike.
Quantexa, a decision intelligence platform provider based in London, is also pioneering an artificial intelligence-powered approach to analyzing corporate data for signals of money laundering, fraud, and other illegal activities. The company’s platform presents its findings through easily digestible graphs, enabling users to better understand how different legal entities are linked to each other. Quantexa’s platform is designed to serve customers in the financial services industry, as well as healthcare, insurance, and government.
Libertify, another London-based startup, aims to make financial markets safer for investors by using artificial intelligence to help cryptocurrency investors navigate market volatility. The company’s automated investing app, which integrates with crypto analytics platform IntoTheBlock, helps investors deal with sudden price movements based on their risk tolerance. Libertify claims it can reduce portfolio volatility by up to 30%, helping to prevent common mistakes made by users under pressure.
Wakweli, a Geneva-based platform, is working to bring more authenticity to the non-fungible token (NFT) space with a revolutionary protocol that incentivizes users to counteract fraud. Wakweli’s consensus mechanism, proof-of-democracy, encourages third parties to certify that an NFT is real and rewards anyone who spots one that has been incorrectly certified. The company has already partnered with Polygon to help counteract NFT fraud within its growing ecosystem of digital assets.
Finally, Riverlane, a British quantum computing startup, is developing an error-correction platform to solve the instability issues in quantum computing. Its quantum computing operating system, Deltaflow.OS, uses hardware decoders to detect quantum errors and a control system that implements error correction cycles when they occur. Riverlane has found fans of its platform in the shape of quantum computing startups Rigetti Computing and Seec.
These startups are just a small snapshot of the wealth of innovation to be found in Europe’s technology startup landscape. As funding becomes increasingly scarce, however, it remains to be seen which of these ventures will be able to truly disrupt their respective sectors and carve out a place for themselves.
