TheIOTA Ecosystem Foundation, is allocating $10 million to start-ups that focus on tokenized trading of real world assets(RWAs).
According to a February 29 press release, the initial investment will focus on companies from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Africa, but the specific start-ups that will receive funding will be revealed in the coming weeks. Accelerator programs for IOTA-based start-ups and recently established “tradetech companies” will be considered.
Strengthening tokenization start-ups.
“By investing in the future of TradeTech, we are not only facilitating smoother trade transactions; we are laying the foundation for a more connected and efficient global trade ecosystem,” said IOTA Foundation co-founder and CEO Dominik Schiener.
In 2016, IOTA was launched as an open source digital ledger, and eight months later raised $590,000 in an ICO . Unlike other crypto networks, it uses “Tangle,” a directed acyclic graph(DAG) , to record transactions.
Expanding digital commerce in Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
IOTA says Africa and the United Arab Emirates “have great potential to lead the development of digital trade around the world.”
The foundation was established as a UAE-regulated entity in November.
The foundationand Trademark Africa are working on a “public goods trade infrastructure” for the Trade Logistics Information Pipeline (TLIP). IOTA believes that digital payments, like cell phones, will be an opportunity to leapfrog in Africa, given the experience with the pipeline in Kenya.
The foundation added: “Digitization of trade transactions can reduce costs by 80%, halve the trade finance gap, reduce cross-border processing time from 25 days to one day and increase SME productivity by 35%.”
On Thursday, the price of IOTA rose 9% to $0.29, after rising 15% over the past month. However, it is still 94% below its all-time high.
