Houston-based Data Gumbo is seeing increasing demand for its blockchain-powered industrial smart-contract network.
Just a few months ago, that wasn't the case. Market effects from the pandemic wreaked havoc on companies supporting the oil and gas industry.
"What was really impactful was negative oil prices and the subsequent reorganizations of all the companies in the oil field," said Andrew Bruce, founder and CEO of Data Gumbo.
To try to bring an innovative new technology to market during that kind of economic climate was brutal, Bruce said. Data Gumbo saw that reorganization of the oil patch continue up into this summer, but the startup's work has rebounded along with the oil and gas sector as global demand increases.
"If you look at July of this year, we had four projects underway. Now, we've got 16, and five of those are going live into production," Bruce said.
Data Gumbo's current headcount is right around 70, up from just over 30 employees about a year ago. The increase came from adding more engineers and building out a customer success team, Bruce said.
The company's blockchain-powered contract network, GumboNet, uses an encrypted, immutable ledger incorporating real-time sensor data and field data to validate customer transactions. The company primarily has projects in the North Sea and North America, but it's also in discussions for projects in the Middle East, Malaysia and Brazil. Data Gumbo is in the process of setting up an office in Saudi Arabia to support its international work. The firm also has presences in London and Stavanger, Norway.
Data Gumbo is projected to have about $2 billion in customer transactions going through its network by the end of the year, Bruce said. The firm's investors include Equinor Ventures, the corporate venture arm for Norwegian energy firm Equinor ASA (NYSE: EQNR), and Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures.
The blockchain company closed its Series B financing round at $7.7 million this summer. To date, Data Gumbo has raised more than $18 million from investors, and the firm plans to close on a Series C funding round in the first quarter of 2022.
"We've got some pretty big plans for how we can put that capital to work," Bruce said.
But Data Gumbo isn't just focused on oil and gas and heavy industry like construction, mining and manufacturing. The firm also introduced automated features to measure and report environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics with GumboNet ESG. The visibility and defensibility around ESG measurements has been top-of-mind for some of Data Gumbo's more green-focused investors, Bruce said.
Investor interest in blockchain technology spiked during 2021. Institutional investors and retail day traders alike are seeing opportunity in cryptocurrency, crypto exchanges, decentralized finance and other blockchain applications. But crypto isn't a space Data Gumbo wants to be in, Bruce said. Cryptocurrency needs blockchain, but blockchain doesn't need cryptocurrency.
"We don't have any intention of having cryptocurrencies. No mining, no tokens, nothing to do with that," Bruce said. "The [blockchain] adoption is taking off, but for completely different reasons."
Data Gumbo has its headquarters office in The Cannon at 1334 Brittmoore Road in west Houston. In late November, Data Gumbo was named the Oil and Gas Start Up Company of the Year during the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) Awards Gala.
