About
We are a team of blockchain engineers, designers, and advisors with unique expertise in building future-proof, platform agnostic blockchain applications that solve our client’s problems
We Solve Problems
At Applied Blockchain we build blockchain applications for our clients, with an even mix of enterprises and startups. We value working through the complex problems enterprises experience, and use blockchain technology to turn ideas into disruptive products.
We Build Products
We build products using our own experience of the problems that blockchain developers need to solve from tools, for automated contract testing through to protocols that make any blockchain network more trustless and secure. We continue to innovate, design and develop state-of-the-art blockchain products.
Our story
Adi started the company in 2015 with the vision of helping companies solve real-world problems by developing blockchain applications and contributing towards creating a trustless ecosystem.
Applied Blockchain was bootstrapped, growing from 2 people to 18 using revenue from client projects before receiving funding (thus, we know the realities of being a startup!).
We received investment from Shell, after winning their Blockchain Competition and designing a proof of concept for Shell Trading.
We opened an office in Porto! We have chosen Porto as our first non-UK office and as our development centre for European expansion.
We began building K0, a zero knowledge proof framework for trading assets privately on smart contract blockchains.
Investors
Investing in Applied Blockchain is part of our commitment to use digitalisation to create value in our core business and develop new business models.
We believe in the long-term promise and process innovation that blockchain brings and believe Applied Blockchain is strategically positioned to lead in this space.
Partners
Our core values underpin all of our work
Platform agnostic
Future-proof
Integrity
Leadership team
Our founding team brings in 20+ years of experience in enterprise IT architecture, big data, artificial intelligence, integration and solution delivery in telecommunications and financial services.
Founder & CEO
Adi Ben-Ari
Adi has over 20 years enterprise software experience, more recently leading major deliveries of production blockchain solutions. Adi is widely recognised as an independent thought leader in the industry, is a noted speaker at major conferences, experienced in educating C-suite on blockchain and zero knowledge proofs, and acts as an advisor for a number of early blockchain startups. His work has also been noted by the UK Government, where he was invited to present at Parliament and the House of Lords, and at UCL where he recently lectured on the subject. Additionally, Adi has co-invented and designed a number of patents related to blockchain as well as mobile payments. Adi holds a BSc in Computer Science and an MBA Information Systems.
CTO
Francesco Canessa
Francesco is a seasoned technology expert and a serial hackathon winner, with a decade of experience in software development and four years within building blockchain applications. Francesco has worked on large-scale enterprise projects and with startups, building solutions for Sky TV Italia, 5Apps, and Quill Content to name a few. He has also developed tools and libraries for Ethereum and Bitcoin. Francesco is a fan of reading, writing and talking about software development, and is an open source enthusiast. When he’s not looking at code, Francesco builds and rides electric skateboards.
COO
Richard Short
Richard has over 20 years of experience spanning across financial services operations as a programme manager and COO – including at Deutsche Bank, HSBC, UBS and Arrowgrass Capital Partners LLP. Richard’s capital market institutions and consultancy background have led him to deliver large-scale, post-trade software solutions across a number of technology platforms. Richard also brings a wealth of organisational change experience along with offshoring and outsourcing, operational risk and process efficiency initiatives.