Bluzelle, the decentralized, on-demand, scalable data storage and management service for decentralized applications (dApps), has been chosen by Chinese internet behemoth JD.com to join its new AI Catapult Accelerator (AICA) for AI and blockchain startups.
JD.com is China’s largest retailer, online or offline, and the world’s third-largest internet company by revenue. With more than 266 million active customers, JD is a direct seller of millions of brands from around the world and hosts a marketplace of more than 160,000 trusted merchants. The company, which owns and operates its own advanced nationwide logistics systems, has embraced AI and blockchain across its operations and seeks to facilitate the growth of this disruptive technology and its benefits, including increased security, transparency and efficiency.
“We are thrilled to join JD.com in this important venture,” said Bluzelle CEO, Pavel Bains. “It offers an opportunity for Bluzelle to leverage JD’s immense network as well as its industry expertise as we develop our game-changing service for the blockchain-powered internet.”
JD.com’s creation of the accelerator comes on the heels of its 2017 entry into the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA), joining other industry giants such as FedEx.
JD.com is the first Chinese member of the alliance.
The AICA is designed to help unlock the transformative power of AI and blockchain startups for the new age of supply chain management, cost-effectiveness and consumer satisfaction.
“Bluzelle is working on solutions to address infrastructural challenges for the next generation of blockchain apps. We look forward to working with them,” said Uri Ferruccio, Director of Strategy and Investment for JD’s AI Platform and Research Division.
Bluzelle closed its three-day Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in January with $19.5 million in fresh funding from the sale of 165 million tokens. Bluzelle’s decentralized database-as-a-service will offer app developers, SME developers and enterprises significant benefits compared to even the most robust of centralized cloud solutions: removing points of failure, increasing the efficiency of scaling, providing improved privacy and immutability of data and enhancing overall performance.
Bluzelle is joined in the AICA by blockchain e-commerce payments and ID platform Nuggets, private wealth management platform Bankorus, blockchain- and cryptocurrency-enabled marketplace Canya and digital product tracking brand Devery.io.
