Startin'blox

What Startin'blox does

Startin'blox is a French cooperative founded in 2015 (operating commercially since 2019) that builds open-source technology for Data Spaces based on W3C Solid standards. The company develops a Django-based Solid-compliant server and a Web Component JavaScript framework that enables organizations to create interoperable data-sharing applications without centralized platform intermediaries. Its technical stack integrates Solid protocols (RDF, Linked Data, LDP, ACP, LDN) with the Beckn protocol for decentralized transactions, and the company has developed methods for search, indexing, and discovery in Solid ecosystems through a research collaboration with Inria's WIMMICS team. A flagship application called Hubl demonstrates the framework's capabilities for interoperability between organizations and workers' collectives.

The company generates revenue primarily through professional services and consulting engagements organized around four service lines: Data Space Blueprint (strategic roadmaps), Data Space Business Assessment (opportunity evaluation), Data Space Deployment (implementation), and Data Space Browser (user-facing interfaces). Pricing is quote-based, tailored to client scope, with multi-year contracts. Its go-to-market combines direct enterprise sales with community-driven engagement through European data space ecosystem events (GAIA-X Hackathons, Tech-X conferences, Diesis Digital Day), open-source contributions, and content marketing. The company employs a freelance-based cooperative model rather than traditional employees.

Startin'blox serves a diverse set of vertical markets including Agriculture & Environmental (Grazing Lands Carbon Data Initiative, Open Food Network), Media & Entertainment (France TV, CST, Newen Studios via the TAMIS project), Civic Tech & Democracy (Democracy Data Space), and Social & Solidarity Economy (ESS France). The company reports 30 clients and 150+ projects completed across three continents (Europe, North America, and at least one additional), with a stated 97% client return rate and 4.75/5 Trustpilot rating. In October 2024 it raised $649,421 from CoopVenture (lead) and Crédit Coopératif.

Name

Startin'blox

Legal name

Startin'blox

Website

https://startinblox.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Startin'blox is a French cooperative that builds open-source Data Space applications using W3C Solid standards, serving enterprises and cooperatives across agriculture, media, civic tech, and social economy sectors through consulting and deployment services.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Federated Data Space Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (54151)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Developer Experience Platforms for Enterprise (IDEs, CI/CD, Dev Portals) (HDAEAKAI)

Keywords

• Data space software
• Federated data infrastructure
• Open source framework
• Data interoperability consulting
• W3C solid standards

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Professional Services & Consulting: Startin'blox generates revenue primarily through consulting engagements and professional services. These include Data Space Blueprint (turning objectives into actionable roadmaps), Data Space Business Assessment (evaluating how a business can benefit from Data Spaces), and Data Space Deployment (implementing governance and technology). Revenue is generated through scoped consulting missions and end-to-end delivery engagements, priced on a quote basis tailored to client needs and scope.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Startin'blox develops and delivers open-source software and consulting services for building business-driven Data Spaces. Its offering combines a W3C Solid-compliant framework (a Django-based server and a Web-Component JavaScript toolkit) with strategic consulting (Blueprint, Business Assessment, Deployment) and user-facing Data Space Browsers that let trusted partners share and analyze data without giving up ownership or control.

Product overview

Startin'blox offers a suite of Data Space solutions built on W3C Solid standards. Their core product is the Data Space Solutions platform, which includes complementary services: Data Space Blueprint (strategic roadmap consulting), Data Space Business Assessment (opportunity evaluation), Data Space Deployment (implementation), and Data Space Browser (user-facing interfaces). The portfolio is designed to help organizations turn the abstract concept of Data Spaces into profitable realities through business-driven solutions. Their flagship application Hubl demonstrates the framework's capabilities for freelancer collectives and organizations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Data Space Blueprint
• Data Space Business Assessment
• Data Space Deployment
• Data Space Browser
• Hubl

Quantifiable outcome

• 97% of clients return for new engagements, indicating high satisfaction and trust.
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Inria / WIMMICS Research TeamcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 9 November 2023Collaboration between Inria's WIMMICS research team (joint team with Université Côte d'Azur and CNRS I3S) and Startin'blox on designing and evaluating methods for search, indexing, and discovery of services and datasets within Solid ecosystems. The project investigates SPARQL traversal and decentralized query approaches to support web-scale deployment of Solid applications. The collaboration also involves Mycelium and Data Food Consortium projects.
• Diesis NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2023Startin'blox and Diesis collaborated on the Erasmus+ DSEtools project supporting Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) in Europe by exploring interconnections between SSE and data spaces. The project established foundations for long-term collaboration, including experimenting with a data space with social economy actors. Guests included CECOP-CICOPA, ALL DIGITAL, Tazebaez, Plastic Jumper, and Confcooperative Bergamo.
• TAMIS Project Consortium (CST, France TV, Newen Studios, ISAN, Procirep)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerTAMIS (Audiovisual Traceability of distributed Secured Metadata) is a project co-founded by Startin'blox as a co-founding member and leading technical solution provider, alongside CST, France TV, Newen Studios, ISAN, and Procirep. The project addresses data sharing issues in the European film industry including under-usage of media assets, copyright ownership identification, and data loss along production lines. Startin'blox defines common data formats using EBUCore ontology and develops open-source components and connectors for the film industry ecosystem.
• i2Cat FoundationminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerA research center encountered at GAIA-X Tech-X Hackathon #6 working on the App Store of IDSA (potentially the future App Store for data spaces). Startin'blox and i2Cat presented their respective visions and advances, identifying strong connections between their initiatives. Both parties are exploring joint applications for public funding to finance R&D efforts.
• DigitaminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerBelgian company supporting organizations in the Solid ecosystem. Digita provides a Customer Data Platform (Digita Connect) and videos explaining the Solid project, guiding customers through building proof-of-concept solutions. Both Startin'blox and Digita explore legal aspects of Solid (DPMR/GDPR compliance) and could share popularization materials. Digita could benefit from better visibility on European Solid actors.
• Virtual Assembly / SemAppsminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNon-profit ecosystem of actors developing digital commons (open-source tools, methods, and projects) based on the Semantic Web and Solid. Startin'blox participated in a one-week co-living residency with the SemApps project team (also based on Solid specifications) to foster cooperation between the two projects.
• LocavoraminorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerLocavora, a platform for online local food marketplace launches, is using Startin'blox's open-source technologies and the Beckn protocol to create interoperable food commerce solutions. Locavora aims to exchange data with other food hubs so shared producers manage product catalogs on a single system.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• SAP: SAP is a large enterprise software incumbent participating in European data space initiatives (including Catena-X) and offering managed data sharing capabilities. It is a broader incumbent that competes for the same enterprise Data Space budgets but with a much larger portfolio.
• Bosch: Bosch is a co-founder of Catena-X, the flagship industrial Data Space in Europe, and operates a broad portfolio of data-sharing and IoT infrastructure. It represents the deep-pocketed incumbent category against which Startin'blox's cooperative model competes for sectoral Data Space engagements.

Others

• International Data Spaces Association (IDSA): IDSA is the standards body defining the IDS/Dataspace protocol architecture referenced across Catena-X, Manufacturing-X, and other European data spaces. While not a direct competitor, it sets the rules of the ecosystem in which Startin'blox competes and is actively referenced in Startin'blox's ecosystem positioning.
• Eclipse Foundation: Eclipse Foundation hosts widely-used open-source projects in the data space ecosystem (e.g., Eclipse Dataspace Connector). It is not a direct competitor but a key infrastructure provider and ecosystem gatekeeper for the same market Startin'blox addresses.

Direct peers

• Inrupt: Inrupt is the most directly comparable Solid-based application development company, founded alongside the W3C Solid protocol by Tim Berners-Lee. It offers an enterprise Solid server stack, developer tools, and consulting for building data spaces — the same problem space Startin'blox targets.
• Data Food Consortium: Data Food Consortium uses Solid standards to give actors in short food supply chains control over their data and applications. It is both a partner and a peer: it works on the same Solid-stack problem space, focused on food systems interoperability.
• Vereign: Vereign works on decentralized identity (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials within the Solid ecosystem, complementing Startin'blox's stack. It is a peer in the broader European Solid implementation community and a potential integration partner.
• Digita: Digita is a Belgian company operating in the Solid ecosystem, offering a Customer Data Platform (Digita Connect) and Solid-related services. Like Startin'blox it works on Solid standards adoption, GDPR/DPMR compliance, and supporting organizations building Solid-based applications.

Emerging players

• i2Cat Foundation: i2Cat is a Catalan research center working on the IDSA App Store, which is positioned as a potential future App Store for data spaces. It is exploring joint public-funding applications with Startin'blox and operates in adjacent R&D areas of the data space ecosystem.
• Cleyrop: Cleyrop is a French data platform company that Startin'blox met at GAIA-X Hackathon #6. It operates in the broader enterprise data-sharing and trust infrastructure space, with partial overlap on data space enablement.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@Startinblox
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/startinblox
• Xx.com/startinblox

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Startin'blox