The biggest China’s retailer JD.com has launched a revolutionary program that aims to develop and support the blockchain technology and artificial intelligence.

The announcement was made today, 27th February 2018 via JD.com’s website. According to the statement, the project was entitled “Al Catapult” and will start to test real applications only in March 2018. Till then, the company will focus on finding solutions related to the blockchain ecosystem.

The main purpose of the Al Catapult accelerator is to invest and attract a lot of new startups that operates with digital technology, especially blockchain algorithms. JD.com assures that will involve new firms in their existing technology and will integrate them into the market using their relationships.

According to the JD’s website, “The company also leads in the use of blockchain technology in supply chains and for product safety, through a supply chain transparency initiative that enables tracing for products back to their origin”.

“Through AI Catapult, the company hopes to deploy these and related technologies even more widely and in more areas that will increase efficiencies and delight customers “.

The inauguration

The new program is based in Beijing, the capital of China and inaugurated by the companies that have already found the success in their domain. According to JD.com, these are: “the Chinese fintech pioneer, Bankorous; Australia’s cryptocurrency leader CanYa; Bluezelle, the blockchain-powered database service based in Singapore; London-based Nuggets, the e-commerce payments and ID platform built on blockchain; and Devery, a blockchain powered, open-source, product verification protocol.”

The JD company boasts with over 266 million customers and a high reputation. It stands to invest in Al Catapult program as well as in blockchain technology by using the company’s strategies, partnerships and resources.

The Vice President of JD.com’s Al platform- Bowen Zhou, stated that “JD is in a unique position to explore the potential of AI and blockchain in global commerce. We are excited to work with some of the world’s most innovative startups to explore ways we can scale these cutting edge technologies for the future of retail and other industries, as well.”

Any company interested in taking part at the Al Catapult accelerator are requested to contact JD via mail: [email protected].