The European Union invests in Blockchain startups

The European Union has invested more than €5 million in startups that are working on various blockchain-related projects.

The Horizon 2020 innovation initiative enabled six startups working on the development or research of applications of the tech, to receive funding.

The European Commission's Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) Group emphasized the work done by Signaturit, Authenteq and The Billon Group, in order to develop services around digital identity and payments, among other use cases.

According to the Horizon 2020 data,  the EU has contributed €5,471,131 in funding to the group of startups, whereby three of the startups received more than €1 million each, and three others  received €50,000 each.

This initiative is considered one of the main pillars of the bloc’s work with blockchain. Last month, the European Commission declared its plan to create a competition entitled  "Blockchains for Social Good", that would run jointly with Horizon 2020. This program was also looked upon by researchers in Europe in order to fund projects related to cryptocurrencies.

Earlier this year, the European Commission started building the foundation for  a Blockchain Observatory, that would be a research and  outreach office for its work with the tech.