Introduction

Atix Labs is a blockchain development company. We develop our own solutions and also for third parties. Since 2015 we have been generating an important portfolio of blockchain implementations in the private sector, in the open source community and also working with the third sector.

The Solution

One of the objectives of Atix is creating software building blocks (like frameworks or tools) that allow solutions to be assembled for various businesses and industries. That’s why we applied for the first UNICEF Venture Fund blockchain cohort in 2018 - to build a platform that would provide transparency in the collection and use of funds.

At that time, we applied, based on this concept, with a solution called Circles of Angels: a platform to bring Social Entrepreneurs and Funders closer together by providing a secure and transparent software to enhance trust when allocating and using the provided funds.

The platform allows social entrepreneurs to model a project as a succession of milestones and activities with well-defined criteria. This gives visibility to the destination of the budget they seek to collect. After registering the collection of the funds (regardless of how these funds were received), the project execution starts and external auditors can upload evidence in each milestone or activity, registering the accomplishment of each one. This allows a transparent reporting of the status of the project and the destination of the funds during the whole project life cycle.

Circles of Angels, with a clear B2C focus, had several implementations in Southeast Asia. This allowed us to collect feedback from early adopters and also to understand where the business model could exist.

The experience working with other organizations, NGOs and other entities, such as the Inter-American Development Bank, allowed us to get closer to real problems of the organizations that already exist and that must manage campaigns or finance social enterprises. This situation, together with the accumulated knowledge of the Circles of Angels platform and the feedback provided by IOV Labs (also a funder of the Circles of Angels project), generated the need for a new B2C  approach where the transparency solution could be offered to these entities. In addition, we visualized an important need for this type of solution in Latin America.

Now, with this new investment from UNICEF Venture Fund, our work in 2022 will be focused on:

• To strengthen the API architecture to allow third parties to seamlessly integrate to the portal, implement a new registration service, and redesign their user experience. This will enable the platform to be offered as a white label technology for the use of other NGOs, Companies and other organizations (B2B model)
• These new features will make it easier for users and beneficiaries to access the platform across two new pilots in Latin American region.

To execute this roadmap, we have already had conversations with organizations and B companies that have been very interested in the integration possibilities.

Through these pilots UNICEF Venture Fund hopes to learn how to bring efficiency and transparency to fund operations or to other investment approaches that will increase matching of resources for entrepreneurs or organizations looking to increase their funding sources.

So what does this software become? On a platform that provides transparency to any situation in which it is necessary to collect funds with a specific destination. And this platform will be able to interact via API with existing solutions in companies and organizations. This is how they will be able to use this technology for their funding campaigns, to track microloans, social investments, grants, etc. and they will be able to do it with their image and brand but allowing them to add the seal of transparency that blockchain guarantees. or B2B? Since it targets entrepreneurs and funders?

So what does this software become? On a platform that provides transparency to any situation in which it is necessary to collect funds with a specific destination. And this platform will be able to interact via API with existing solutions in companies and organizations. This is how they will be able to use this technology for their funding campaigns, to track microloans, social investments, grants, etc. and they will be able to do it with their image and brand but allowing them to add the seal of transparency that blockchain guarantees.

Open Source

We are convinced that if we want to provide transparency, it is necessary that the code is available to anyone so other software experts can review it and determine that there are no scenarios in which it can act in a dark way. We do not believe in the existence of a transparency platform that does not allow us to show how it was built.

The Team

Atix started with 4 partners in 2015 and has been growing rapidly from 2018 to date. We went from around 20 members to almost 80 this 2022. We have been building a relevant knowledge base on how to implement blockchain solutions (and also how not to) over the years.

At Atix, we believe that the existence of a completely decentralized team (Atix stopped having physical offices in 2019 and started hiring talent around the world) is essential to have complementary visions and avoid cultural biases. Likewise, the implementation partners in Malaysia and Singapore, added to the IOV Labs Social Impact team, allowed the development of a necessary synergy to implement a global solution that can solve local problems.

The co-founders of Atix strongly believe in the use of technology for good, which is why we have collaborated, financed, and participated in various social projects related to blockchain over the years. We are convinced that it is a technology that can change the way we trust organizations and we work every day to achieve it.