Building business solutions: Plug in to blockchain the easy way
Decentralised, immutable, secure, and transparent: no wonder businesses are considering distributed ledger technology (DLT) and blockchain to reduce their costs and increase accountability and transparency. Hampering widespread uptake is the sheer intricacy of the system and the shortage of expertise and specialised blockchain developers. Blockchain involves many complex operations executed autonomously to ensure the network of nodes stays in sync and applications built on it are stable and secure. “It’s not surprising that it takes a lot of study to understand what’s happening under the hood with blockchain. That said, with our solution, this is not necessary,” points out Matthew Van Niekerk, co-founder and CEO of the host company SettleMint, based in Belgium.
Low-code platform for high-speed deployment
Essentially what WordPress does for website development and Stripe does for payments integration, the SettleMint platform does for blockchain technology. Van Niekerk explains: “We abstract away all the complexity and remove overhead developer tasks so they can focus on programming the digital customer journey their clients want and the unique business logic their company needs.” The project’s core goal is to make it easy for companies, organisations, and ecosystems to work with this technology. An incredibly simple (low code) application facilitates rapid deployment and integration of the blockchain technology within digital transformation initiatives. “Moreover, our go-to-market approach enables us to sell through and with our growing network of systems integration partners,” Van Niekerk emphasises. SettleMint researchers successfully scaled their middleware solution to enable businesses to rapidly develop and integrate blockchain solutions, and in doing so, established it as a leading product provider in the blockchain space. SettleMint is active in several countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific, India and the Middle East with clients in each region. “A local presence ensures we can build long-term relationships with clients and partners around the world,” Van Niekerk points out.
From innovation stage to ‘Cool Vendor’
SettleMint has rallied as the market recovers after the ravages of COVID-19 despite being in the innovation stage when lockdown hit. “We made quick decisions to move to remote working which went smoothly but it took much longer for companies to buy remotely,” says Van Niekerk. The company also rapidly transformed their marketing approach from an events-driven to a fully digital one focused on thought leadership to ensure their lead generation persisted in an adverse business climate. SettleMint is recognised by Gartner as a ‘Cool Vendor’ for enterprise blockchain. Everest Group describe it as a ‘Low-code Trailblazer’. Recognition from these two leading research and consulting companies in IT clearly demonstrates that SettleMint is among the industry leaders in the field. The technology has expanded to markets with the highest estimated compound annual growth rate for enterprise and public sector spent on blockchain. “We are seeking new clients, new partners and new investors now to maintain our product leader position in the market and to continue on our growth trajectory.” SettleMint is proud to be founded in Europe and honoured to be alumni of the H2020 phase II SME programme. Final words from Van Niekerk reflect confidence in the product and the team behind it: “Blockchain is a word that you will hear a lot of in the coming years as adoption accelerates. If you are keen to accelerate your adoption, please reach out.”
Keywords
SettleMint, blockchain, low-code, network, developer, middleware
