The Sovrin Foundation, the governing body for Sovrin, the blockchain-based digital identity network, and investment fund Hard Yaka today announced the launch of an incubator to provide early-stage companies with technology guidance, business development expertise, and funding to advance self-sovereign identity (SSI) as a solution to the longstanding, inter-related problems of identity verification and privacy on the Internet. Successful applicants to the incubator will receive a $180,000 investment and spend three months in San Francisco, California beginning September 2019.
The Self-Sovereign Identity Incubator is dedicated to growing a robust, technology-agnostic SSI ecosystem. This specialized program will integrate participants into a global community of SSI-leading companies. Selected companies will build proof-of-concept and business models, with help from world’s leading SSI technologists and business executives and by using the tools and technology that best meets their specific needs. After working for three months in the heart of San Francisco at a Market Street hub for innovative tech companies, participants will graduate with a working technical demonstration of their solution, a business pitch presentation of their company, and a greatly expanded expert network.
“Self-sovereign identity gives individuals control of their online identities in the same way as they control their identity in the physical world,” said Heather Dahl, CEO of the nonprofit Sovrin Foundation. “Sovrin has seen the rapid adoption of SSI by global enterprises in the past year because the technology is a powerful, flexible, and elegant solution to the complex and persistent problem of identity online. With the SSI Incubator, we are able to nurture the kind of disruption and innovation that early-stage companies can deliver and support them as they transform industries, markets and institutions.”
“Hard Yaka is excited to work with Sovrin Foundation to create a world-leading program for startups in the self-sovereign identity (SSI) space,” said co-founder Greg Kidd. “Hard Yaka's investment portfolio already focuses on the identity solutions necessary to take the potential of blockchain and the digital transformation of all permission-based activity from the university labs to mainstream. Hard Yaka will back its commitment to SSI with investment funds for startups accepted into the Incubator for Self-Sovereign Identity program.”
The combination of SSI with distributed ledger technology (DLT) transforms the privacy and security of identity in business and customer relationships. In its March report, “Top Recommendations for Your Security Program, 2019,” Forrester urges chief information security officers (CIOS) to “Empower your customers to control their own identities via self-sovereign identity” and recognizes Sovrin as a player in this space. Self-sovereign identities, writes Forrester, are “a win” for customers and businesses.
The Self-Sovereign Identity Incubator will begin on Monday, September 9, 2019. Applications for the first cohort are currently available and are reviewed on an ongoing basis as they are received until the deadline at 11:59 PM, Wednesday, July 31, 2019. Selected companies will be notified on August 12, 2019.
Please go to https://ssiincubator.com for more information or to begin the application process.
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