Everledger is heading to Tokyo for a competition with ten regional champions to contest for a partnership with NTT DATA. Winning London innovation applies block chain technology to track the provenance of valuable artworks and artefacts.

Everledger has won the London stage of NTT DATA’s Global Open Innovation Business Contest 5.0. Now, the Everledger team is flying to Tokyo, Japan to compete against entrepreneurs from all over the world in the Grand Finale. Participants will be competing for the financial award, worth USD 30,000 to support the development of their new businesses, and a chance to get into the highly innovative Japanese market.

This contest is all about giving start-ups the best opportunity to succeed. Not only do they receive invaluable feedback and guidance on their ideas via direct access to business leaders, but also the chance to create a ‘triple-win’ partnership with NTT DATA and their clients to develop their business,” said Kotaro Zamma, head of section of open innovation and business incubation, NTT DATA.

Everledger uses blockchain technology to create a digital global ledger, which tracks and protects valuable items such as diamonds “from mine to market”. By creating a digital provenance trail, the technology eliminates the need for a large paper trail between owners, insurers and transporters as valuable items change hands around the world.

The concept pitched to NTT DATA married this capability with NTT DATA’s own AMLAD digital archiving technology, which was developed to scan and record, in very high definition, priceless manuscripts from the Vatican Library. The concept product could provide a new way to archive and create an immutable provenance trail for valuable artworks.

This is the first time that NTT DATA has located the competition globally. Having achieved significant success in the company’s native Japan over the last two years, the contest has now expanded to 10 additional locations in 2017, including London.

Winners of other regional heats to date include Legalbot in Sao Paulo, a company planning to democratise regulatory intelligence using machine learning analytic tools, and Paykey in Tel Aviv, which proposed a new peer-to-peer payment solution. Everledger will join these firms in the Grand Finale of the Global Open Innovation Contest 5.0 in Tokyo on the 15^th March 2017.

In addition to the contribution of business support, Grand Finale winners will also receive travel and accommodation for two weeks for two people to join a collaboration project with NTT DATA in Japan, as well as a 6-month pass to a co-working space in Tokyo, presented by NTT DOCOMO Ventures Corp.