Minespider and the EIC Accelerator: Battery Passports, No Token

Tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold sit in almost every phone and car, and some of it is mined in conflict zones. Since 1 January 2021, EU importers of these four minerals have had to check where they come from, under the EU Conflict Minerals Regulation. Minespider, a start-up registered in Zug, Switzerland, in 2018 and run from Berlin, set out to turn that due diligence paperwork into a digital certificate that travels with each shipment on a blockchain.

The European Commission's list of the October 2019 EIC Accelerator pilot winners names "MINESPIDER GMBH" of Zug, grant only, for a "Blockchain Protocol for Responsible Mineral Sourcing". No other company appears on the list for the project. CORDIS records an EU contribution of €2,306,246.25 towards a total cost of €3,294,637.50, paid to MINESPIDER AG of Zug as coordinator. The grant agreement was signed on 3 April 2020 and the project ran from 1 May 2020 to 30 April 2023. CORDIS records the money as an EU contribution, and no source found names any other funder.

Where Minespider Stands Now

The Minespider business is active and has narrowed onto one regulation. Its website now describes the company as "a Digital Product Passport and Battery Passport platform", and the website owner named in its imprint is Minespider GmbH in Berlin, not the Swiss company that received the grant. In February 2026 it launched Recircle.market, a marketplace for second-life batteries and recycled battery materials, which electrive describes as a minimum viable product built in the EU-funded RECIRCULATE project. In March 2026 the Canadian company MineHub announced a memorandum of understanding with "Spider Labs GmbH (Minespider)" on cross-selling and possible platform integration, according to its press release. On 7 October 2026 Minespider announced work with the e-bike maker TENWAYS on battery passports for its light means of transport batteries, which must carry one from 18 February 2027, the company says.

The corporate picture is less simple than the brand. The Swiss grant holder still exists, but on 24 April 2024 it changed its name from MINESPIDER AG to Revalio AG, according to its entry in the Swiss commercial register (Zefix), published in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce on 7 May 2024, and the Zug cantonal register, which lists it as Revalio AG at Baarerstrasse 10. A Berlin company registered in February 2023 as Revalio Labs GmbH was renamed Spider Labs GmbH in June 2024 and lists nine shareholders, according to North Data; its capital rose from €25,000 to €26,950 in March 2025 and to €27,250 in May 2025. A Dutch subsidiary, Minespider NL B.V. in Hoofddorp, is marked as terminated by North Data. What Revalio AG does today, and who owns the Berlin operating company, could not be verified from free sources.

The Technology: Certificates That Travel With the Metal

Responsible sourcing today relies on audits of smelters and on paper or PDF certificates passed down a supply chain. Minespider's idea was to package that due diligence data into a digital certificate, later called a product passport, tied to a specific shipment. A mine or smelter creates the passport, attaches origin, emissions and compliance documents, and passes it on with the material; buyers scan a QR code to see the public layer and request access to the encrypted layers, the company explains on its technology page. The blockchain records that a document existed and when it was changed, which a shared spreadsheet or a supplier portal does not prove.

The design has changed since the grant. The 2019 proposal on CORDIS describes a protocol that is "public, free and decentralized", made of three parts: a blockchain layer, an application layer of enterprise software, and "the SILQ utility token", which was to let the system "function without centralized control". The company's current technology page describes a "public-permissioned blockchain" with a proof-of-authority consensus, says linked files are stored encrypted on AWS so that "the data itself is not decentralized", and sells access by subscription. No SILQ token, token sale or token listing could be found in any source.

What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

MINESPIDER was the company's second EU grant. A six-month SME Instrument Phase 1 feasibility study, worth €50,000, ran from December 2018 to May 2019. The final report for the main project, covering May 2021 to April 2023, says the Minespider Protocol "was updated to a version 2.0", that a template for supply chains touching conflict-affected and high-risk areas was launched with EIT, and that tools for digital product passports, "including Battery Passports", were developed. It also lists dissemination: articles in mining trade titles, a Minespider TV series and a short documentary on traceability work in Rwanda. The project ended on its scheduled date, and no extension is recorded.

The report says nothing about the token, and gives no figures for customers, passports issued or revenue. A third, one-year EU grant of €140,125, running from October 2020 to September 2021, was to add consultancy and a service based on physical tracking, the Internet of Things and AI. The current website offers a tagging and tracking app and AI tools that pre-fill passports from uploaded documents, according to the company's own description.

1. Blockchain layer (Minespider Protocol)DeliveredVersion 2.0 reported on CORDIS; now a permissioned chain, not the "free, decentralized" protocol proposed.
2. Application layer (enterprise software)DeliveredPassport platform in use at Minsur from 2023, per Global Mining Review.
3. SILQ utility tokenNot deliveredNot mentioned in the final report; no launch announced by the company or anyone else.
4. Industry best practice for responsible sourcing, "upstream, downstream and worldwide"PartlyNamed users in tin, batteries and buses; no market share figure from filings or independent data.

Where the Grant Went

CORDIS splits the €2.31 million between four entities. MINESPIDER AG kept €1,221,291.11. Its Berlin subsidiary, Minespider GmbH, took part as a linked third party and received €807,412.76. Two other linked third parties received the rest: NW HinWise Solutions UG of Berlin €149,107.78, and Williams Chemical Consultancy Limited of Dublin €128,434.60. Both companies were shareholders of the Swiss company before its conversion in 2020, according to entries in the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce reproduced on Zefix. What work they did under the grant is not public.

The Swiss company's own finances are only partly visible: no annual accounts appear in the register sources checked. When the GmbH converted into an AG in June 2020, its balance sheet at 31 December 2019 showed assets of CHF 873,571.47 and liabilities of CHF 594,044.00, according to the register entry. In December 2020 a claim of CHF 600,000 was converted into 7,500 shares. In April 2022, 18,250 of the company's own shares were cancelled, and in July 2022 claims of EUR 800,000 were converted into 2,993 new shares. The register says nothing on who held those claims.

In April 2020 Minespider said it had raised €2.8 million "from combined sources", including the EIC grant, according to International Mining and BTC-Echo; neither names an investor, and International Mining put the team at 10 people. No later equity round with an amount or named investor could be found. Minespider is not in the EIC Fund portfolio, which is consistent with a grant-only award.

What Minespider Has Achieved Since the Award

The clearest customer result is in tin. In September 2023 Minsur, the Peruvian producer that Global Mining Review calls the world's second-largest tin producer, said it would put all of its tin operations on Minespider's platform, more than 29,000 tonnes a year from Peru and Brazil, building on a pilot that began in 2018, according to Global Mining Review and Miners News. An earlier pilot with Volkswagen tracked lead supply chains, according to BTC-Echo.

The battery work followed EU law. In January 2025 the Indian engineering firm Tata Elxsi launched MOBIUS+, a battery lifecycle platform that uses Minespider's battery passport, at the Bharat Mobility show, according to Tata Elxsi and Autocar Professional. Minespider also lists the Turkish bus maker TEMSA, Renault, Google and DHL among its partners on its own site; those claims could not be checked independently, and no contract values are public.

EU research money has kept flowing to the Berlin company as a consortium partner. CORDIS lists Minespider GmbH in BATRAW (€302,312.50, battery recycling, from May 2022), RECIRCULATE (€852,187.50, battery reuse, from May 2023), APOLLO (€512,525.69, solar panel recycling, from January 2024) and RETURN (€495,250, electronics recovery, from June 2025). Together that is €2,162,275.69, nearly as much as the EIC grant itself.

Why Europe Should Care

Minespider sits where three EU laws meet. The Conflict Minerals Regulation requires due diligence on tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold. The Batteries Regulation, in force since 17 August 2023, makes digital battery passports mandatory from February 2027, as electrive notes. The Critical Raw Materials Act sets 2030 targets, including that no more than 65% of the EU's annual consumption of a strategic raw material should come from a single third country, and asks for supply chain monitoring. Each of these rules needs reliable data on where materials come from, and a European supplier of that data is in line with the EU's aim of knowing and diversifying its supply chains.

The Verdict

Minespider has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements and EU project data, linked throughout.