Blockstream is a private, for profit, blockchain technology company, that has played a key role in helping to develop, and fund, many of the key features of the Bitcoin Core platform. Blockstream is focused on developing bitcoin applications and has raised significant funding from several large investment funds. The company also employs several developers that are very influential within the Bitcoin Core development project. This, as well as being of Bitcoin's largest donors, has led to some criticism about conflicts of interest.
Blockstream is developing a number of Bitcoin applications that are intended to encourage adoption and improve transaction times on the bitcoin network. Their primary focus is on Sidechains, which are are extensions to existing blockchains that improve their functionality. The company is also working closely with industry leaders to create the Bitcoin Lightning system that will support higher trading volume and faster transactions on the bitcoin network. Blockstream is also developing a data feed, satellite network, and other applications that they hope will make blockchain more accessible.

The Matic Network is a sidechain based scaling solution for public blockchains. Matic aims to allow developers to better scale their Ethereum DApps by using a version of Plasma, along with side chains that use a PoS consensus mechanism. Matic plans on supporting other blockchains as well in order to facilitate interoperability.

Ignis is a blockchain platform that is being developed by Jeluirda; the company behind Ardor and Nxt. Ignis is a child chain of the Nxt blockchain. Jelurida is developing blockchain platforms that will enable users to develop decentralized applications, and will be based on a parent and child chain architecture.
Ignis allows users to create child chains with specific features and to create tokens that meet their needs. This project is closely related to Ardor and Nxt.