Cadeia secures seven-digit funding for research and development
Cadeia receives more than EUR 1 million in state and EU funding for research into the use of automatically generated smart contracts and blockchain-agnostic platforms in the context of capital markets.
28 April 2022 — The Berlin Senate, Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) are jointly supporting the development of Cadeia’s platform for complex financial products with more than EUR 1 million. The funding, part of the “Pro FIT” technology promotion program, aims to facilitate research into Cadeia’s blockchain-agnostic “Smart Contract Engine” (SCE) for the digital mapping and automated settlement of complex financial products on different blockchains. The public funding underlines the great potential of blockchain technologies for the future of the financial industry.
Author: Constantin Ketz, Co-Founder (c.ketz@cadeia.co)
FinTech startup Cadeia is developing a platform for the digital structuring, issuance, and servicing of complex capital market products, as well as for the rule-based distribution of product-related cash flows through smart contracts. The distinctive feature: at the heart of the platform, a proprietary conversion engine translates product specifications and transaction logic entered by the user into the respective programming language of the selected blockchain, and automatically forms smart contracts (i.e. self-executing programs) for product issuance as well as transaction servicing and settlement. This so-called “Smart Contract Engine” (SCE) enables any user to transform legal and financial information from a term sheet, contract, or prospectus into executable computer code without any programming knowledge. Executed on a blockchain, such smart contracts ensure transparent, secure, automated, and rule-based settlement of financial products or transactions, and thus lead to increased process efficiency.
The research around Cadeia’s Smart Contract Engine (SCE) focuses on different methods for implementing a blockchain-agnostic approach in the automated creation of smart contracts, which need to be issuable in different blockchain programming languages to this end. In addition, the requirements and challenges of parallelized transaction processing on multiple blockchains as well as the possibilities for a compliant data protection integration of public blockchains in the capital markets context will also be investigated in greater depth. The research project is initially designed for a period of two years. Throughout this period, the insights acquired will contribute directly to the further development of Cadeia’s digital capital markets platform.
Together with funding advisor Arete, Cadeia was able to demonstrate the innovative character of its Smart Contract Engine (SCE) and its transformative power for the digitization of capital markets, which in the end convinced not only the jury of the “Pro FIT” technology promotion program, but also the Berlin Senate Department for Economy, Energy and Business. The funding of more than EUR 1 million from Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB) and the European Regional Cooperation Fund (ERDF) will flow directly and in full into research and development, and thus also into further development of Cadeia’s technological platform. For this purpose, new jobs will be created in Berlin, strengthening in particular Cadeia’s software engineering team.
Patrick Hartl (Managing Director, Cadeia) emphasizes the great opportunity offered by the research funding: “The funding from IBB and ERDF shows that research into the use of DLT in capital markets is not yet complete. However, I also understand the research funding as recognition of our technological approach. Above all, I see it as confirmation and a motivation for the work of the whole team to implement an innovative and technologically challenging project.”
Mira Arnold (Board Executive, Arete AG) also showed delight about the jointly achieved milestone: “As a successful funding consultancy, we continuously receive inquiries from exciting technology companies looking for support within the context of public funding programs. Unfortunately, we frequently also have to turn down companies, if, in our opinion, not all criteria for a successful grant application have yet been met. However, due to the high degree of innovation of the research project as well as the professional and experienced team, Cadeia convinced us right on the spot. Today, we are pleased to have contributed to the successful financing of the project.”
Ralf Schäfer (Funding Advisor, Investitionsbank Berlin) added: “The Pro FIT financing program offers grants and loans for promising technological innovation projects of SMEs. The aim of any funding is twofold: general strengthening of Berlin as a technology hub and the creation of new jobs. We are looking forward to the insights gained from the research and to the further development of the company.”
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About Cadeia
Cadeia (www.cadeia.co) is a financial technology company with a vision to make global capital market transactions and products more secure and efficient for issuers as well as investors. Based on novel distributed ledger technologies (DLT), Cadeia provides an innovative platform for the digital structuring, issuance and settlement of complex financial products. This includes, among other things, the automated and rule-based distribution of the associated cash flows. The offering is targeted at institutional customers such as banks, asset managers, insurance companies or pension funds.
About Arete
“Every company addressing societal challenges should be able to finance its innovations.” This is the vision of Arete AG (www.arete-foerdermittel.de), founded in 1998, a management consultancy specialising in the acquisition of public funding. We accompany innovative startups and SMEs from the application to the administration of public funding and reporting. We have many years of experience in regional, national, and European economic development programmes.
About Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB)
Investitionsbank Berlin (IBB; www.ibb.de) is the development bank of the State of Berlin. With its offers in business development, the bank primarily supports start-ups and founders as well as small and medium-sized companies that are located in Berlin. In the real estate sector, the focus is particularly on new rental housing construction. It also promotes measures for energy efficiency improvements and demographic development.
