UK blockchain startup Billon Group receives $2.1M grant

UK-based blockchain payment startup Billon Group has been awarded nearly €2 million (approximately $2.1 million) grant from the European Commission (EC) under the SME Instrument program, which is a part of the Horizon 2020 framework program.

Billon Digital Services, a fully owned subsidiary of UK’s Billon Group, will use the fund to complete the development of B4TDM (Blockchain for Trusted Document Management), a solution built using its proprietary distributed ledger technology (DLT).

The solution allows storing, signing, and sharing of electronic documents. But aside from digitizing documentation, B4TDM can also provide encryption and customize access control rights. The solution is also compliant with EU regulations, including GDPR.

Based on its initial scalability test result, it has the ability to publish up to 5 million documents on DLT daily. This can help companies chop down management cost by up to 50%, as stated in its press release.

“Today’s document management industry has struggled with fulfilling regulatory and customer requirements related to protecting document identity content, and to provide customers with control over data they choose to share or delete,” said Wojtek Kostrzewa, CEO of Billon Group.

“With the funding from Horizon 2020, Billon will fulfill MIFiD2 and GDPR requirements with innovation that puts a customer in control of their own data and documents.”

Billon Digital Services is one of the 64 projects backed by the EU R&D program. The grant covers 2 years of work to finish all the new features and fund starting commercial actions. The company will also gain access to coaching, conferences, training, and networking events.

Last month, another subsidiary of the Polish-British fintech Billon Solutions was permitted to operate as an EU-registered electronic money institution. This is the first permit of this type issued by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority.