Road to Success

Development Team of the Year went to Rakuten Blockchain Lab, a 20-strong team building secure, high-availability enterprise platforms for financial services, as well as health and consumer electronics sectors.

akuten Blockchain Lab, a dedicated research and development organisation focused on blockchain technology and its potential applications in the fintech and e-commerce sectors, was opened in Belfast in 2016.

Having acquired IP assets from Bitnet Technologies, Rakuten combined the assets and deep engineering expertise of the Bitnet team with Rakuten’s leadership in fintech and support of innovative solutions to unlock blockchain’s potential to revolutionise the way financial and e-commerce transactions are conducted.

The Rakuten Blockchain Lab team developed cryptocurrency exchange Rakuten Wallet in 2019 and NFT marketplace Rakuten NFT in 2022, while supporting the use of blockchain technology in over 70 services and ecosystem platforms across the Rakuten group, including e-commerce, fintech, digital content and mobile.

Its Rakuten Blockchain Platform provides REST APIs to allow web engineers in the Rakuten group to utilise blockchain technologies, supporting both enterprise blockchains and public blockchains.

Awarding Development Team of the Year to Rakuten Blockchain Lab, judges said: “The winning team clearly excelled in knowledge and capability but also worked in concerted collaboration to produce outstanding results for their company and its clients.”

Fergal Downey, vice president of engineering at Rakuten Blockchain Lab, said: “Rakuten Blockchain Lab are delighted to receive the award for Development Team of the Year and we extend our congratulations to the highly commended and shortlisted teams, as well as the category sponsor, HireIQ.

“This award recognises the strength and depth we have within our team in Belfast and the collaborative working practices we adopt in all our projects. It is validation of the talent, work ethic and culture we have been able to build locally.

“Rakuten Blockchain Lab provide innovative and cutting-edge solutions to global Rakuten business such as Rakuten Wallet, Rakuten NFT and Rakuten Open eCommerce. We are proud to help put Belfast onto the global technology map with respect to blockchain and Web 3.0.”