SIMBA Chain, a startup working to democratize blockchain technology by making it accessible to everyone, has raised $500,000 in a recent pre-seed round. Backers include Elevate Ventures, Notre Dame Pit Road Fund and Tracy Graham, CEO of Data Reality. AECI International CEO Hari Agarwal is an investor and is also joining the board of directors.

SIMBA Chain will use the funds to continue to build out its Blockchain-as-a-Service platform, which makes it easy for anyone to implement blockchain distributed apps for iOS, Android and the web.

Participants in the round have impressive resumes and a solid roster of prior investments. Tracy Graham is the founder and Managing Principal of Graham Allen Partners, whose portfolio includes innovative organizations including Data Realty, Aunalytics, AC3, SEMMA Health, and Qumulus Solutions.

Investor Najeeb Khan has more than 35 years of business experience, and is the founder, chairman and CEO of Interlogic Outsourcing, Inc.

"The Pit Road Fund is excited to partner with and invest in SIMBA. Their Blockchain technology has the potential to eliminate a significant amount of record-keeping, allowing for significant costs savings and a reduction in burdensome paperwork," said Bryan Ritchie, General Partner - Pit Road Fund.

Blockchain is most commonly known as the technology underpinning cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, but it's a transformative technology with wide-ranging implications for a diverse range of sectors from healthcare to banking to manufacturing. The challenge is getting companies to realize the benefits of leveraging blockchain technology and then creating pathways to facilitate its implementation. That's where SIMBA Chain comes in.

"Using SIMBA you can basically use a UI to create and model your business application. You define the assets along with the parameters you need, click go, and it automatically writes a smart contract, which is essentially interfaced to the blockchain," SIMBA Chain CEO Joel Neidig told Microsoft for Startups. "It reduces the development time into the blockchain and it enables very fast prototyping and development as well."

SIMBA Chain (short for Simple Blockchain Applications) was formed from a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) grant in 2017 to build out a secure messaging solution for the U.S. Department of Defense.

The company recently won a government contract that will see it use its platform to help the U.S. Air Force improve its logistics and supply chain capabilities, part of an ongoing effort by the service branch to ensure it remains ahead of the technology curve. Most recently, SIMBA participated in a war game at the Pentagon.