Creathor Ventures becomes an investor in Haja Networks, joining Outlier Ventures and Polychain Capital. The funding round also features Berlin-based BigchainDB.
Haja Networks is an ambitious start-up comprised of some of the early team behind OrbitDB and IPFS that is building two new and complementary open-source protocols to enable decentralised databases.
1. Decentralised Database Protocol: An open protocol to build decentralised databases that enables users to own and control their data. The protocol integrates with existing databases, unlocking them to the decentralised web, and enables interoperability between structured data sources.
2. Decentralised Database Network: A marketplace for decentralised database services allowing providers to monetize their software whilst data hungry businesses have straightforward access to the widest range of services.
This approach is diametrically opposed to how traditional centralised databases with their silo structure and associated negative implications (such as loss of control over personal data) are set up.
Christian Weniger, Partner at Creathor Ventures commented: “Haja Networks’ founders impressed us with their clear product vision and sector expertise. We are excited to support them on their quest to bring interoperability to decentralised networks.”
Samuli Pöyhtäri, founder and CEO of Haja Networks, added: “There are great projects seeking to make decentralised data storage and data exchange possible, but there’s a significant gap for decentralised databases, which are able to update and structure data in a scalable way.”
He continued: “We believe that those who are building the decentralised web today, won’t be able to do it with the existing applications. But with the knowledge, network and depth of team of our investors we are confident that we can deliver our vision to become a foundational part of the new decentralised web.”
Jamie Burke, CEO, Outlier Ventures commented: “Blockchains today generally can’t handle most database sizes and throughput volumes and that will likely still be the case even when proposed scalability solutions come online. Therefore, what’s often really needed is interoperability between decentralised networks. It’s this that holds the most promise to a world full of decentralised applications that have high performance and a great user experience to rival and ultimately replace today’s centralised web.
Haja Networks is led by CEO and pioneering developer Samuli Pöyhtäri and Chief Technology Officer, Vesa-Ville Piiroinen. Piiroinen has decades of experience in distributed systems and enterprise database and security solutions. Pöyhtäri is a former IPFS core developer, and is at the forefront of decentralised databases and storage systems. He is also well known for creating OrbitDB a peer-topeer database for the decentralised web that is used by various decentralised applications and projects.
Haja Networks have already firmly established themselves as a critical component to useable decentralised databases partnering with Berlin based BigchainDB who have now also made a strategic investment.
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About Creathor Ventures
Creathor Ventures invests in technology-oriented, fast-growing companies in all stages of their development, especially in the fields of Specialized Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Industry Tech and Enabling Platforms as well as Healthtech/Healthcare/Life Sciences. The regional focus is on Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and the Nordics. From its offices in Bad Homburg (Frankfurt) and Zurich, the team of 17 staff actively supports more than 30 ICT and life science companies in development, growth and internationalization. Creathor Ventures’ management team consists of the Managing Partners Dr Gert Köhler, Karlheinz Schmelig and Cédric Köhler, and the Partners Christian Leikert, Dr Christian Weiss and Christian Weniger. The team has been investing successfully in start-ups for over 30 years and has conducted more than 20 international IPOs during that time. Creathor Ventures currently manages funds of more than EUR 230 million. As the largest investor in its funds, the management underlines its entrepreneurial orientation.
About Haja Networks
Haja Networks develops foundational distributed and decentralized technologies for the future Internet. With open-source, transparency and diversity as their core values, they’re currently building OrbitDB, a scalable and trustless peer-to-peer database, and database protocols for a global data layer to re-decentralize the web. Haja Networks is a distributed organization working remotely across the globe and was founded by Samuli “Haad” Pöyhtäri and Vesa-Ville Piiroinen in 2018 in Oulu, Finland. The name Haja comes from the Finnish and is a prefix that signifies decentralization. https://haja.io