UK-Based Blockchain Startup Nuggets Joins Access India; Set To Enter Indian Market

London-based Nuggets, a blockchain startup is set to expand its operations in India, as part of the Access India Programme, an initiative for UK SMEs to support Make In India.

As per Nuggets co-founder and COO Seema Khinda Johnson, Nuggets is one of the 24 companies chosen for the first cohort. This will give the company access to a range of invaluable services, from mentorship to networking and market-entry support.

Founded by Alastair Johnson and Seema Khinda Johnson in 2016, Nuggets is an ecommerce payments and ID platform that stores one’s personal and payment data securely in the blockchain. It uses biometrics against all logins and passwords details.

Nuggets has some apt solution for the Indian economy. The country has only recently moved away from making 80% of payments in cash, with 60% of the population unbanked. Even so, India’s GDP is forecast to grow by 7.4% in 2018, and the economy is set to overtake both the UK and France in size over the next few years. “A consumer product like ours, which enables simple, secure e-commerce payments, has clear value in accelerating India’s move towards a cashless society,” wrote Seema in her blog.

What Is Access India Programme?

Launched in 2017 by the UK India Business Council in partnership with the Indian High Commission, London, Access India programme promotes and helps selected UK SMEs expand and establish their setup in India.

As part of its consultancy and market entry promise, under the Access India Programme, the shortlisted SMEs mostly startups are further provided with a detailed programme of activity, mentoring, networking opportunities and market entry support services. The services include strategy advisory, operational market entry support, tax and legal support, financial services, project financing, M&A, location services, technology collaboration, facilitation of approvals from central and state agencies.

Nuggets in a short span has already expanded its base in China. The company representatives have already made presentations to various institutions and companies in China including at the Tsinghua University.

In India, Mumbai-based GetXS has also developed blockchain-based digital identities for users to authenticate securely over the Internet. Having created 40,000+ XS IDs so far, the startup tackles password issues by providing users unique digital keys that can be used at all the correlated platforms.