Lankan blockchain firm secures Japanese funding

Tracified Co-founders Uthpalie Thilakarathna and Dileepa Jayathilaka

99X Technology yesterday said Tracified, a company incubated within its innovation center/accelerator StartupX Foundry, has received an equity investment from 360ip, a venture capital firm based in Tokyo. 

 “I’m delighted to see Tracified reach this milestone, a tipping-point in the journey of becoming a global offering in this space. When we formed StartupX Foundry in 2017, it was as a corporate accelerator to provide a platform to enable our employees to build their own startups. We give them the mentoring, funding and environment to nurture their entrepreneurial spirit,” Mano Sekaram, CEO and Co-Founder of 99X Technology and Founder of StartupX Foundry said. 

Tracified is a blockchain-based traceability solution that connects the entire supply chain. The solution can be applied to scenarios when it is crucial to assure the integrity of the supply chain. Whether it’s organic produce or Atlantic salmon, Tracified can identify and record movement, temperature and storage durations across every stage, using a multitude of tracking technologies.

A delegation from 360ip visited Sri Lanka in December 2019 to evaluate Tracified and its potential for the Japanese market.“360ip has a focus on investing and developing advanced science and technology ventures on a global scale. 

Although Sri Lanka’s potential in developing advanced ICT services and products is known to many, only a very few early-stage technology startups survive beyond seed round, due to the lack of a well-established venture capital financing framework with an effective technology commercialization methodology. 360ip wants to bridge that gap by supporting promising startup ventures to develop their technology and business beyond Sri Lanka,” Asashi Fujimori, CEO of 360ip Japan said.

Dileepa Jayathilaka, Co-founder Tracified said, “This is international recognition of our Blockchain competency. We are proud to be one of the first traceability solutions in the public blockchain. 

“While we have built many award-winning products during the past 10 years through our cutting-edge research, Tracified is the first product we have successfully commercialised with an international partnership, providing us both funding and market access.”