The 2016 Start Path Global program aims to help new seven participants to scale their operations and penetrate new markets. Everledger is the first to apply blockchain to register provenance of diamonds.

The selected startups will first work with MasterCard during a weeklong class in London, then tackle a half-year virtual program closing in November with the Start Path Global Partner summit in New York.

The six other participants apart from Everledger are a security solution provider Cyberfend, eCommerce data aggregator Itembase, airport transfer search and booking engine Mozio, conversational commerce solution provider PayKey, mobile payments platform RecargaPay and multi-currency payments application Revolut.

“The companies selected for this class are unbundling traditional commerce and financial services and reconstructing products that offer better consumer experiences,” said Stephane Wyper, global lead for MasterCard Start Path. “They are altering the world of commerce by using powers of mobile, big data, and analytics, moving to mainstream at a very fast pace.”

However, it is not specified how the companies are expected to expand their presence in the world markets.

Everledger, a London-based blockchain company, is “a permanent ledger for diamond certification and related transaction history,” according to its website. It uses the immutability of the blockchain to record all the data related to each registered precious stone. The aim is to create “a fraud detection system”, allowing owners, police and insurance companies to track any diamond.

Apart from diamonds, Everledger plans to introduce blockchain registration for other luxury goods, declaring that their technology “can be extended to track any asset that carries a Unique Identifier which is difficult to destroy or replicate.”

The Start Path Global programme was first launched in 2014. More than 60 startups have participated in it since then. In 2016, the selected companies will have such advisors as Rakuten, TSYS and Royal Bank of Canada.

Ludmila Brus