WINSTON-SALEM – Fluree, a public benefit corporation based in Winston-Salem, is applying the company’s blockchain technology to assist the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Air Force, and the U.S. Department of Education.

The company noted in a statement that governmental entities such as these three public sector entities are adopting new technologies and making broad moves toward data sharing, given increased concern about cyberattacks.

Fluree received a contract from the DoD and the U.S. Air Force through the AFWERX SBIR program, the company announced.  The contract is for Fluree to build a secure data-sharing platform, it noted in a statement.

“Fluree is able to provide the glue for secure data-sharing,” said Brian Platz, cofounder and CEO of Fluree in a statement.  “This is becoming increasingly important as cyberattacks against public and private sector entities have become more prominent and cataclysmic, inciting the issuance of recent data decrees.”

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For the Department of Education, Fluree is a part of a collaborative project that also involves the Gardner Institute, the University of Arizona, and Georgia Tech.  The project, UnBlockEd, is funded through the American Council on Education’s Blockchain Innovation challenge.  The goal of the collaboration is “to build verifiable learner credentials for easier transfer credit articulation,” the company said in a statement.

Fluree, cofounded in 2016 by Platz and Triad-based entrepreneur Flip Filipowski, is also involved in a second Department of Education project that also focuses on the use of blockchain technology, it noted.

The company raised $6.5 million in September 2020, and previously raised $4.7 million in June 2019.  4490 Ventures led both rounds and Steve Case’s Rise of the Rest seed fund participated in both rounds.