BlockApps Inc., an Ethereum-based blockchain platform focused on enterprise-grade infrastructure, today announced it has raised $41 million in new funding led by Liberty City Ventures to expand the development of its ecosystem and business solutions.

The funding round was joined by new investors Morgan Creek Digital, Eidetic Ventures and Givic. Existing investors ConsenSys, Bloccelerate, Fitz Gate Ventures, Arab Angels, Kenetic Capital and PropelX also participated.

BlockApps’ provides a “blockchain-as-a-service” platform called Strato that allows businesses to customize, manage and govern their own private blockchain infrastructure based on the public Ethereum blockchain specification.

The reason the company chose Ethereum is that it has a massive developer pool and a pre-existing toolset for programmable smart contracts and thus developer knowledge of Ethereum is easily migrated to Strato.

Using Strato, enterprise customers can use blockchain technology to track and secure supply chains. This can be done because blockchains record transactions in a chain distributed between multiple ledgers and secured with cryptography to prove that it hasn’t been tampered with. The chain of transactions becomes an immutable historical record.

By implementing the platform, real assets can be brought onto the blockchain for use in industries such as agriculture and energy. BlockApps is already proving the worth of Strato’s platform and blockchain technology with partnerships with Amazon.com Inc. and Bayer Crop Science in agriculture and partnered with the Blockchain For Energy, a consortium of the world’s largest energy companies, including ExxonMobil Corp. and Chevron Corp.

“BlockApps’ founding and leadership team are a who’s who of Ethereum pioneers that are delivering true business value to customers,” said Murtaza Akbar, founding partner at Liberty City Ventures. “What’s more, they’re solving some of the world’s biggest challenges and causing industries to re-think what’s possible with blockchain technology – especially when it comes to navigating the complexities of today’s sustainability challenges and supply chain issues.”

In the past 14 months, BlockApps has launched several projects based on its platform designed to provide supply chain sustainability and traceability. Amid them were TraceHarvest, a blockchain application for tracking and tracing the full lifecycle of food and agricultural products starting from seed. There’s also TraceCarbon, a net-zero blockchain application for carbon management, product labeling and corporate reporting. And the Seismic Entitlement Platform is an energy management solution developed in partnership with Blockchain For Energy to provide greater transparency during oil and gas discovery.

Protecting supply chains is a common use of blockchain technology and it’s the primary reason for the formation of IBM’s Food Trust Network, which launched in 2018. It has been used to secure numerous different types of agricultural products including olive oil, romaine lettuce, salmon and other foods. It has also been put to use by GrainChain and MasterCard in 2020 for agricultural supply chains.

Along with the new funding, Liberty City Ventures and Morgan Creek Digital will appoint representatives to join BlockApps’ board. The company added that it will be using the fresh infusion of cash to grow its development team, build more partnerships for its ecosystem and bring more blockchain assets into Strato.

Image: Blue Planet Studio