About us
CADChain is a deep tech startup, with a focus on emerging technologies such as blockchain and machine learning, R&D, education, and intellectual property.
What we do?
We are developing IP management software for CAD data. We have one product in beta, Boris for Inventor, a second product in alpha for open-source software Blender, BlendedBoris, and a proposition for 3D printing in stealth mode.
Core team
We have a female CEO and a professionally diverse team with decades of experience.
- Violetta BonenkampCEO & Co-FounderVioletta is a linguist with an MBA, 4 other Higher Education degrees, several blockchain and AI certifications, which allows her to come up with multidisciplinary and creative solutions. Violetta has been with the startup since its inception and has been supporting every aspect of its development. Now she is responsible for R&D, PR and business development.
As a female founder, she is on a mission to inspire, and hire a diverse team that works hand-in-hand with sustainable development goals. She is the initiator of the non-profit initiative (startup game for women) called Fe/male Switch that is part of our CSR. - Dirk-Jan BonenkampCLO & Co-FounderDirk-Jan is responsible for the legal framework that CADChain solutions need. He comes from a technical family as his father was an inventor. He bridges the gap between the law and the use of emerging technology, which is why he has immersed himself in blockchain technology and IP law with respect to manufacturing and CAD data.
His previous experience as a politician proves to be beneficial when it comes to connecting with the public sector. His experience as an entrepreneur allows him to come up with cost-efficient solutions that fit the needs of startups and SMEs. Dirk-Jan also acts as our Data Privacy Officer. - Timo WolthofCOOTimo manages operations and research.
His strategic and operational experience in previous startups is valuable and he brings a vast knowledge of distributed ledger technologies. He became part of the blockchain sector in 2016. He is also the lead for grants and development. - Evgeny MalyshevCTOEvgeny is CAD Developer with a background in both Mechanical Engineering and IT. He has been working for a research institution for many years. Evgeny is passionate about innovation and has an outside-the-box thinking approach. He has been instrumental in the feasibility study by helping us bring together CAD and blockchain.
Our history
A startup idea was born out of a problem that exists in the engineering industry: there’s no industry standard for CAD data protection and sharing.
Creating a globally accepted multi-layered solution that would address the lack of data protection and a reliable method of data sharing became the premise that needed to be explored.
At the end of 2018, after validating the idea at EOSIO hackathon in Hong Kong, CADChain founders were invited into a Dutch incubator.
Creating a globally accepted multi-layered solution that would address the lack of data protection and a reliable method of data sharing became the premise that needed to be explored.
At the end of 2018, after validating the idea at EOSIO hackathon in Hong Kong, CADChain founders were invited into a Dutch incubator.
In January CADChain was officially incorporated in the Netherlands, where it is currently headquartered.
After the validation of the business case by the Dutch Ministry of Economics, CADChain was awarded several grants to do feasibility studies, an R&D project with two other companies, and a Proof of Concept financing. Currently, we are spending more than 80% of the budget on R&D, and are qualified in the Netherlands as an innovative startup.
After the validation of the business case by the Dutch Ministry of Economics, CADChain was awarded several grants to do feasibility studies, an R&D project with two other companies, and a Proof of Concept financing. Currently, we are spending more than 80% of the budget on R&D, and are qualified in the Netherlands as an innovative startup.
CADChain participated in several incubators, joined Partners for International Business Programme, Blockchain solutions Netherlands-Singapore, and been awarded the Block.IS grant from the EU's Horizon 2020 program. CADChain applied for funding from the Dutch government for an early phase subsidy and was successfully granted this VFF financing with a unanimous decision by RVO (Netherlands Enterprise Agency).
CADChain grew to 25 people, including engineers, developers, marketers, and designers. We were accepted into the DMS Accelerator among 30 other early-stage startups chosen out of 250 applicants and were among the 10 best finalists.
In November, we launched an MVP public beta of our blockchain solution BORIS for Inventor, a plugin for Autodesk Inventor that creates digital twins of CAD files and allows users to maintain full control over shared CAD files.
Over the time we have been engaged in several projects. CADChain is creating a B2B SaaS for European engineering SMEs that addresses the issue of safe storage and exchange of digital assets while preserving the IP. This solves the issue of trade secrets protection in the creator economy, prevents counterfeit products, and facilitates technical developments.
We are also in the middle of a two-year R&D project with two partners in the field of certified additive manufacturing.
In November, we launched an MVP public beta of our blockchain solution BORIS for Inventor, a plugin for Autodesk Inventor that creates digital twins of CAD files and allows users to maintain full control over shared CAD files.
Over the time we have been engaged in several projects. CADChain is creating a B2B SaaS for European engineering SMEs that addresses the issue of safe storage and exchange of digital assets while preserving the IP. This solves the issue of trade secrets protection in the creator economy, prevents counterfeit products, and facilitates technical developments.
We are also in the middle of a two-year R&D project with two partners in the field of certified additive manufacturing.
CADChain continues to beta test our first product, Boris for Inventor, while also getting ready to start the second stage of the development.
At the same time, we were busy developing our second product, this time for digital artists, game developers and metaverse builders. In August, we launched a closed beta of this solution called Blended Boris, a plugin for Blender that registers copyright of digital files.
Our two-year R&D project with two partners in the field of certified additive manufacturing has been successfully finished in December.
We got accepted into the Innovation Champions program (run by TNW and Arcelik) and got into a Horizon-2020 sponsored incubator called "Reach" with an idea to create "Dutch Extractive Auto Summarization (DEAS)", a tool that helps media companies automate article summarizations using AI.
We also got accepted into Microsoft for Startups and Scaleway programs. Our CEO, Violetta got onto the list of top 100: Europe’s most influential women in the startup and venture capital space by EU Startups.
At the same time, we were busy developing our second product, this time for digital artists, game developers and metaverse builders. In August, we launched a closed beta of this solution called Blended Boris, a plugin for Blender that registers copyright of digital files.
Our two-year R&D project with two partners in the field of certified additive manufacturing has been successfully finished in December.
We got accepted into the Innovation Champions program (run by TNW and Arcelik) and got into a Horizon-2020 sponsored incubator called "Reach" with an idea to create "Dutch Extractive Auto Summarization (DEAS)", a tool that helps media companies automate article summarizations using AI.
We also got accepted into Microsoft for Startups and Scaleway programs. Our CEO, Violetta got onto the list of top 100: Europe’s most influential women in the startup and venture capital space by EU Startups.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
As part of our CSR, CADChain established Fe/male Switch, a non-profit with a focus on bringing more women into STEM. We started it during the pandemic and bootstrapped it until it received initial funding.
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Guardians of design data