"The first wave of killer apps built on blockchain are already growing explosively, Cryptocurrencies built on blockchain like Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC) have collectively surged past $500B in market valuation," said MState Co-Founder and CEO Rob Bailey. "In 2018, we will see a growing number of enterprise blockchain use cases go mainstream from healthcare applications to government, supply chain and retail to the real estate and transportation industries. But for most of these use cases to succeed, blockchain start-ups need to be able to engage well with enterprise customers. Our growth lab is going to help make that happen."

The founding team of Rob Bailey and the partners from Boldstart Ventures (www.boldstart.vc) have collectively helped scale from inception more than 80 enterprise-focused companies that have raised more than $1B in capital, had more than 30 exits and 3 IPOs.

Backing MState are:

• Comcast Ventures: The venture capital affiliate of Comcast Corporation, which invests in blockchain technology to explore new media models.
• IBM: The leader in open-source blockchain solutions built for the enterprise (Source: Juniper Research). Dedicated to supporting the development of openly-governed blockchains, IBM has worked with clients across financial services, supply chains, IoT, risk management, digital rights management and healthcare to drive blockchain adoption in the enterprise.
• Galvanize: A technology incubator, venture fund, and coding school with 8 campuses around the US.

How MState Will Help Enterprise Blockchain Start-Ups

MState will run a six-month program at Galvanize offices in New York and San Francisco that will focus on helping technical founders with all aspects of their go-to-market strategy, including product development, team building, sales, marketing, finance, business development and customer support. A core focus will be helping start-ups in the program engage successfully with prospective enterprise customers and partners. MState has already built a network of 30 advisors which include five founders who have successfully built billion-dollar tech companies, as well as a team of 25 CMOs, COOs and CROs.

The growth lab will invest in all of the companies in its program and has already made its first investment in Blockdaemon (www.blockdaemon.com), a blockchain deployment platform that provides easy, one-click deployment, management and supervision of nodes to all major protocols, including Hyperledger Fabric, Ethereum Enterprise and R3.

HowTheApplicationProcessWillWork

MState has launched an online application process on its website (www.MState.io). Applications will be evaluated by a committee of venture capitalists and blockchain experts. The best five companies will be selected for inclusion in the program and their names announced February 1st, 2018.

What MState is looking for in start-ups:

Company & Team Pre-Seed or Seed Stage

• Based anywhere, does not have to be San Francisco or NYC
• Technical/product co-founder required
• Core team must have experience with B2B and/or building for developers
• Team deeply understands the market they are entering

Market & Customers

• Enterprise use cases, not SMB or B2C
• Big addressable market, non-US okay
• Solving a big business problem that is uniquely suited to blockchain
• Early customer validation preferred (customer meetings, feedback, etc)
• Clear potential to be a category leader

Product

• Working prototype or product in production preferred, but not a requirement
• Unique product features/performance vs competition
• Thoughtful, long term product roadmap that is realistic

About Enterprise Blockchain
The enterprise blockchain market is expected to grow ten-fold to $2.3B in the next five years. (Source: Research and Markets http://bit.ly/2jWKq9p) Currently more than 100 Fortune 500s companies have active blockchain initiatives and the number is growing fast. These include use cases in financial services, supply chain, food safety, consumer identity, advertising and media rights management.

About MSTATE

MState is a growth lab for enterprise blockchain companies with locations in New York City and San Francisco. MState will run a six-month program starting in February of 2018 that will select five start-ups and work closely with them to grow successfully and close enterprise customers. MState is backed by IBM, Comcast Ventures, Galvanize and Boldstart Ventures, a first check enterprise investor based in NYC. The founding team of Rob Bailey and the partners from Boldstart Ventures have collectively helped scale 80+ enterprise-focused companies that have raised more than $1B in capital, had 30+ exits and 3 IPOs. Companies can apply to be a part of the program on the www.mstate.io web site, starting January 4th.