Zebi acquires blockchain startup Element42

Telangana-based blockchain company Zebi has acquired its Bengaluru-based peer Element42, for an undisclosed amount, a company statement said.

After the transaction, Zebi will acquire Element42’s team and clients, which will strengthen the former’s in-house blockchain engineering talent and will expand its product line and add customers, the statement added.

Founded by IIT Kharagpur alumnus Pruthvi Rao, Element42 Management Solutions Pvt. Ltd provides its customers anti-fraud and transparency solutions via blockchain technology, Internet of Things and analytics. The solution has been applied across many industry segments. It claims to have served more than 35 enterprises and government organisations across India. The firm is a portfolio company of San Francisco-based Alchemist Accelerator and was also ranked fifth in the Deloitte Tech Fast 50 India 2018.

Zebi Data India Pvt. Ltd was founded in 2015 by IIT alumni Sudheer Kuppam and Babu Mungala. The company provides specialised blockchain-based offerings to governments and enterprises, which use the solution to protect their high value and sensitive data.

Within a year of its operations, the government of Andhra Pradesh used Zebi Asset Chain to capture the land registry data in the city of Amaravati. Zebi’s AI Chain product has been adopted by police departments in three districts of Andhra Pradesh and is running live at more than 1,000 hotels.

Zebi has a number of other blockchain products—Zebi Edu Chain, used in the education sector, has been deployed commercially, while Zebi Tele Chain, used in telecommunications; Zebi Fin Chain, used for stock market trading; and Zebi Log Chain, used in the logistics space, are in pilot mode. The firm has customers in Bengaluru, Dubai, Hyderabad, Singapore, USA and Vizag.

“This endeavour gives fantastic momentum to Zebi. With the combined resources, we are looking forward to developing and launching many more innovative products targeting telecommunications, BFSI and logistics industries in the coming months. Our goal is to firmly establish Zebi as the preeminent leader in real-world applications leveraging blockchain technology,” said Kuppam, co-founder and chief executive of Zebi.

Zebi had raised $1 million from US-based angels in January 2016.