The co-founder of Prom.ua and Vchasno.ua Mykola Palienko became one of the first investors in the British blockchain startup with Ukrainian roots Research Integrity Chain (RICH). The startup works to protect intellectual property and launched an innovative blockchain application.
The co-founder of Prom.ua and Vchasno.ua Mykola Palienko became one of the first investors in the British blockchain startup with Ukrainian roots Research Integrity Chain (RICH). The startup works to protect intellectual property and launched an innovative blockchain application.
RICH (Research Integrity Chain) is a British deep tech startup that has launched a platform for data protection and monetization among publishers, academics, industrial enterprises, and businesses.
Using blockchain technology and AI tools, RICH helps verify the authenticity of scientific articles, research, and other intellectual property. Security and protection against counterfeiting are guaranteed by a token with timestamps, authorship, and other metadata assigned to each piece of data.
The startup was founded in London in January 2024. The founders include serial Ukrainian IT entrepreneurs Dmytro Shestakov, Andriy Matyukhin, and Andriy Afonin, known for startups CER.Live, Hacken, Reviewer Credits, and others. Currently, the RICH team is working on launching a pilot project with Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, London Business School (UK), Berkeley and Maryland Universities (USA), and is raising a pre-seed round of investment of 1 million pounds.
RICH announced three weeks ago that prominent Ukrainian technology entrepreneur Mykola Palienko, CEO and co-founder of the Ukrainian IT product group Tabula Rasa, as well as co-founder of EVO, the Prom.ua marketplace, and the Ukrainian online document sharing and storage service Vchasno.ua, is joining the startup as a lead angel investor.
Representatives of the startup are confident that RICH’s relationship with Mykola will go beyond the investment from Tabula Rasa. «His skills and experience in the areas of e-commerce, data security, and teamwork are crucial to the growth and expansion of RICH,» they explained.
«The digital age demands new standards for intellectual property protection. RICH’s blockchain solution is exactly what researchers need, and I am confident that it will become the gold standard for research integrity in academia and beyond,» the startup’s representatives wrote in a post on Linkedin, citing Mykola Palienko’s words.
In addition, the entrepreneur noted that RICH could be useful, in particular, for the defense sector of Ukraine, as reported by the Interfax Ukraine agency.
The startup plans to scale in the US, UK, Canada, and the EU, and also has plans to collaborate with organizations such as DARPA, the National Science Foundation, and the BBC.
UPD. 17.02.2025 12:30 The amount of funding from Mykola Palienko in RICH amounted to $50,000, Forbes writes, referring to the company’s press service. The startup intends to attract 1 million pounds of investment in the seed round.
