IBM announced the launch of IBM Blockchain Founder Accelerator in order to encourage and help enterprises and developers to adopt blockchain networks into production faster.

The enterprise blockchain accelerator is the first program available that provides expertise and support across the technology, legal and business considerations of establishing new blockchain networks, the release stated. It welcomes enterprises to join and gain exclusive access to technology and consulting expertise.

The IBM Blockchain Founder Accelerator is the expansion of the blockchain ecosystem program, and is designed to address important challenges that many early adopters and enterprise developers have identified through the development of leading blockchain networks. The accelerator is focused to share this collective knowledge with enterprise founders to drive the rapid adoption of production blockchains.

“IBM has worked on more blockchain projects than any other player in the industry and we understand the challenges organizations face and the resources needed to get blockchain networks right the first time. IBM is proactively building solutions and entire blockchain ecosystems across a broad range of industries and we are sharing our expertise and resources to help more organizations quickly set up their networks,” Marie Wieck, general manager, blockchain technology, IBM, stated.

The program offers one-on-one mentorship as well as support by network founders and technologists across a range of needs such as business case development, network membership incentives, and technical development, among others. Apart from this, the members of the Founder Accelerator will receive early access to new prebuilt software assets, delivered via IBM Cloud in order to reduce the time and technical expertise needed for developers to write complex blockchain code.

The accelerator will select eight new blockchain network founders for this fee-based accelerator across a range of industries such as banking, logistics, manufacturing and retail and offers scholarships as well.

“As a founder of security and privacy solutions addressing the cost and complexity of complying with regulatory requirements such as the EU's new General Data Protection Regulation, the guidance and support that IBM provided us in bringing DataPassports to market was invaluable in accelerating the development and delivery of our blockchain based services,” Kevin Ellison, CEO, Schedule1, mentioned.