Tag Archives: Blockchain

New platform to buy and sell tokens backed by a diversified portfolio of U.S. real estate

ATLANTA, GA, United States, 2-May-2022 — /EPR FINANCIAL NEWS/ — Yield Crowd is an online portal to buy and sell tokens backed by a diversified portfolio of U.S. real estate. Yield Crowd has just finished it’s tokenization of a U.S. $50M portfolio of real estate as YIELD tokens on the Stellar blockchain.

Commenting on Yield Crowd’s ongoing momentum, Chief Executive Officer Amariah Olson stated, “Being huge believers in technology and the future, and witnessing first-hand the transactional friction and liquidity issues in the incumbent real estate private equity sector, we are very excited to be bringing Blockchain technology to the real estate space and to offer the world’s first portfolio of institutional assets tokenized on the blockchain. We are doubling down to become the leading tech pioneers in the blockchain real estate space with our Yield Crowd platform, where buyers and sellers can come together to transact real estate backed tokens on-chain and earn dividends daily.”

Started by brothers Obin and Amariah Olson, their real estate company Olson Capital Investments began as a small private investment company, where they had large success in investing in and developing multifamily, office and retail properties. Prior to real estate, they were investing in and producing Hollywood films with global distribution, now they are primarily focused in the real estate space, currently holding over $50M in institutional class assets, where they have grown the equity at 154% per year through the acquisition of distressed and value-add deals.

The Olson’s recently acquired two retail car wash properties in Orange and Riverside County near Los Angeles, CA, valued at over $33,000,000. They closed the deal with $15M of debt from T bank, and are currently under contract on a 121-room Hotel in Arizona, and 130 additional apartment units in Texas. Diversifying into retail and hotels is part of the company’s short-term strategy to boost its portfolio’s cash flow to help finance the Yield Crowd platform and pay dividends to token holders. YIELD token will initially be a regulation S exempt offering, available to non-U.S. investors. The Tokens are backed by corporate bonds set to receive excess income from the Olson’s private real estate portfolio and will be available on the yieldcrowd.com platform, where token holders can earn a target 8.75% return.

Olson further comments, “In the coming years, Yield Crowd will be positioning itself to be the go-to online real estate investment. Unlike the incumbent real estate funds, which often require an investor to tie up their capital in the fund for 7-10 years, YIELD tokens are freely tradable between owners on the Stellar decentralized exchange. This flexibility is going to make a huge impact in the real estate industry over the next 3-5 years, and we are positioned to be at the forefront as the industry transitions to the blockchain paradigm.”

The Olson’s have completed over 20 real estate investments in Office, Residential, Multifamily, and Retail, totaling over $80 million in transactions, which they have privately financed using their own equity and institutional debt.

SOURCE: EuropaWire

Hong Kong’s Innovation and Technology Venture Fund part of insurtech startup Ignatica’s Pre-A round of financing

ZÜRICH, 7-Jul-2021 — /EPR FINANCIAL NEWS/ — Ignatica, the insurance policy administration platform that offers digital self-service and intelligent automation solutions for insurers, is excited to announce that the Innovation and Technology Venture Fund (ITVF) has become its strategic investor.

The ITVF is a HK$2 billion fund established in 2017 by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government to co-invest with selected venture capital funds in local innovation and technology (I&T) start-ups.

“Becoming a portfolio company of the ITVF is core to Ignatica’s love and commitment to Hong Kong and its burgeoning start-up and technology sector,” said Ignatica President and Co-Founder, Travis Callahan.

As the first insurtech investment made by the ITVF, Ignatica’s platform lets insurers quickly and efficiently build and launch new products at low cost, while drastically reducing administration costs and transforming the servicing experience for consumers.

“The investment aligns with the ITVF’s primary objective to support the development of I&T start-ups in Hong Kong. We look forward to supporting Ignatica’s innovative work that creates new markets and value for the insurance industry,” said an ITVF spokesperson.

As of July 7, 2021, the ITVF has invested US$1.75 million in Ignatica.

“As a lifelong Hong Konger, it means a great deal to me to enter into this partnership with the city,” said Ignatica CTO and Co-Founder Adhish Pendharkar. “Ignatica is a reflection of the diversity, innovation, and sense of community of Hong Kong.”

Ignatica’s suite of SaaS offerings allows insurance product managers to create and edit coverages and plans, dynamically adjust pricing, and change product configurations in seconds. They also enable servicing and back-office operations to be automated and pushed to the front edge for digital self-service for even the most complex insurance products.

“The ITVF is an ideal investor as we continue to scale our business globally,” said Manuel San Miguel, Ignatica’s CEO and Co-Founder. “It’s an honor to be chosen by the city’s own, premiere investment fund.”

“We welcome the Innovation and Technology Venture Fund to join as a co-investor of Ignatica. We believe Ignatica will be better positioned growing in the Hong Kong market, and in turn contributing to Hong Kong’s fintech industry,” said Ming Shu, Partner of Lingfeng Capital. “As the lead investor of the company’s Pre-A round of financing, we are very pleased to introduce Ignatica to the ITVF. Moving forward, we aspire to continue our post-investment value-add to our portfolio companies and together building the future of insurance technology in the Greater China region and beyond.”

ABOUT IGNATICA (www.ignatica.io/)

Ignatica was founded in 2018 by Manuel San Miguel, former Manulife CTO for APAC, fellow technology and insurance industry veteran, Adhish Pendharkar, and longtime C-suite executive and entrepreneur Travis Callahan. Its core platform technology enables insurers to profitably provide every person on the planet the type of insurance they need, at the price they can afford, with the service and speed that today’s customers expect.

ABOUT INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY VENTURE FUND (https://www.itf.gov.hk/en/funding-programmes/supporting-start-ups/itvf/)

The ITVF is a HK$2 billion fund established by the HKSAR Government in 2017 with a view to attracting more private capital to invest in local I&T start-ups, thereby creating a more vibrant I&T ecosystem in Hong Kong. The ITVF will co-invest with selected co-investment partners at a matching investment ratio of approximately 1 to 2.

ABOUT LINGFENG CAPITAL (www.lingfengcap.com/)

Lingfeng Capital is a growth capital private equity fund for the fintech sector in the Asia Pacific, particularly in the Greater China region. Its focus is on real applications and underlying tech for the finance industry. Its vision is to become the leading innovative tech fund management company and to facilitate growth and success for the next generation of entrepreneur-driven fintech companies.

SOURCE: EuropaWire

PixelPlex Announced a Successful Cryptocurrency Wallet Development

New York City, NY, 2020-Sep-15 — /EPR FINANCIAL NEWS/ — A custom software development company PixelPlex informed about completing their work on Qtum Wallet – a cryptocurrency mobile wallet for Android and iOS. The wallet is able to execute multi-currency transactions and has ERC20 token support, smart contact builder, and advanced security features.

The Qtum development goals

The company shared the details about their new project – Qtum mobile wallet for Android and IOS. Their goal was to build a secure user-friendly wallet for the Qtum blockchain platform with all necessary capabilities such as Touch ID, 2FA protection, and transaction templates. UI/UX design for Android and iOS was used for simple navigation. High security was provided by Shamir’s secret encryption and iOS Secure Enclave & Android KeyStore support.

The developers commented on how exactly they managed to achieve such high security in their cryptocurrency wallet development. With the implemented client-side encryption, the Qtum mobile wallet encodes private keys and all transaction data on the client’s mobile device. The user account, private keys, and all transactions are secured before any information reaches a third-party server. The wallet app is also backed with 2-factor authentication, PIN protection, an auto-lock feature, and Touch ID / Face ID biometric authentication.

Important features for performing crypto operations

Mobile wallet development was a complex task, and in the end, Qtum wallet included all the essential features for performing crypto transactions. The wallet is integrated with the top exchanges for crypto trading, works with multiple currencies, includes support for cold-storage account recovery, QR codes leading to a payment widget, and has NFC support to streamline payments. The client will also get notifications about completed transactions and exchange rate changes.

As a result, Qtum wallet from PixelPlex became an easy-to-use, but yet a powerful tool for multicurrency management and tamper-proof peer-to-peer transactions.

Via EPR Network
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Privus closes funding round led by Silicon Valley and New York-based Rubicon Venture Capital and by a highly regarded Toronto based investment firm

ZUG, Switzerland, 10-Oct-2018 — /EPR FINANCIAL NEWS/ — Privus announced today that it has closed a funding round led by Silicon Valley and New York-based Rubicon Venture Capital and by a highly regarded, Toronto based investment firm with a successful track record in business building and technology investment. The $635,000 raised also includes funding from existing investors and management and will be used to extend Privus’s enterprise software portfolio and commercial footprint, as well as to meet growing demand for its SecurLine Cloud and TurnKey solutions, in line with the company’s government and corporate focus.

SecurLine, Privus’s flagship solution, employs open-source, state-of-the-art, peer-to-peer encryption to ensure the security, privacy and quality of communications between users. SecurLine is offered on an annual, prepaid basis for unlimited use as a cloud-based application, and as a tailored, on-premise solution, allowing clients to manage their own private network. SecurLine is available for download directly from the App Store or Google Play.

“We are focused on privacy first and foremost and have developed the company and its products on that basis. That investors of the calibre of Rubicon have joined Privus is a testament to the quality of our products and to our long-term vision,” stated Henrique Corrêa da Silva, Founder and CEO of Privus. Luis Lavradio, Founder and CFO added, “I am delighted with the success of this round and that we have been able to add two new investors that complement and strengthen an already exceptional shareholder base. They will both actively reinforce our ability to open new markets and grow our business.”

Andrew Romans, General Partner of Rubicon Venture Capital said, “I was introduced to Privus by an old friend as a blockchain-based start-up, with strong existing technology that is hard to replicate and is already generating meaningful enterprise revenue that we see growing very quickly. At Rubicon we share Privus’s vision that communications should be private and free from interference or geofencing, a vision that also makes great business sense. We use SecurLine on a daily basis to ensure our business and personal calls are kept private, and look forward to the roll out of the Privum network, which will allow anyone to access the Internet privately and securely, regardless of where they happen to be. On the treasure map of blockchain and cyber-security start-ups we place a large X on Privus.”

The long-term orientation of the Canadian principal investment firm, as well as its extensive global business network, will underpin Privus’s ability to focus on building a world-class enterprise platform with privacy and digital security at its core, and consolidate its position as a global reference in privacy and digital security.

SOURCE: EuropaWire

Worldcore: 15 countries where you may encounter problems with cryptocurrency transactions or mining

PRAGUE, Czech Republic, May-10-2018 — /EuropaWire/ — 2018-2019 may be called the era of cryptocurrency regulation. After we’ve followed ICO success stories in 2016-2017, in the next 1.5-2 years we will observe various countries bringing cryptocurrencies and related processes, such as ICOs and smart contracts, out into the legislative framework.

Worldcore international company has comprised a rating of countries according to the stringency of their cryptocurrency regulations. It starts with the countries where cryptocurrencies are entirely banned, followed by those states where cryptocurrency circulation is not merely significantly restricted, but also criminalized in the framework of the national financial legislation.

Thus, there are currently four countries in the world where residents may end up in prison for several years for any cryptocurrency transactions.

  1. Nepal
  2. Bolivia
  3. Bangladesh
  4. Algeria, a recent addition to the list.

Besides the countries with criminalized cryptocurrency trade and ownership, there are numerous countries where a national ban has been imposed on specific types of cryptocurrency transactions. The degree of regulation in this sphere varies notably — from a ban on using cryptocurrency as legal tender (common in countries that have not legalized free cryptocurrency circulation) and to a complete ban on exchanges and ICOs in China (which enterprising Chinese enthusiasts forego by launching hard forks of popular currencies as ICOs and trading on foreign exchanges). Here’s a list of these states:

  1. China (ban on ICO, buying and selling cryptocurrency, advertising)
  2. India (since April 2018, the Central Bank of India has forbidden buying or selling cryptocurrency; cryptocurrency also isn’t recognized as legal tender)
  3. Russia (when cryptocurrency market regulation legislative proposal comes into effect, it will limit the legal annual transaction volume to 50,000 rubles for unqualified investors; allow purchase and sale exclusively on registered national platforms, provide for full participant de-anonymization; mining will be considered an entrepreneurial activity with mandatory sale of the mined assets on national exchanges; cryptocurrency/crypto-token will be recognized as a digital asset, but not legal tender). Cryptocurrency advertising is forbidden on certain platforms (i.e. Yandex).
  4. Vietnam (stringent national anti-money laundering regulations; gradual legalization is planned starting in August 2018)
  5. Indonesia (a ban on purchase and sale of cryptocurrency)
  6. Thailand (in February 2018, the Central Bank of Thailand has forbidden five key transactions with cryptocurrencies to financial institutions: investment, trading, establishment of cryptocurrency platforms, using credit and debit cards to purchase currency and consulting people on cryptocurrency investments).
  7. Kyrgyzstan (cryptocurrency is not recognized as legal tender, liberalization of regulations is currently under consideration)
  8. Ecuador
  9. Iceland (under the umbrella prohibitive currency regulation)
  10. Morocco
  11. Malaysia

“In the countries that have restricted cryptocurrency circulation and mining, it primarily involves cryptocurrency as a digital asset coming under the restrictions of investment or money laundering regulations. Perhaps, these states will address the issue of cryptocurrency regulation later, when the more developed countries establish adequate legislation and provide positive examples of regulation and taxation. Another aspect of the ban, i.e. in China or Ecuador, is the clearing out of the competition prior to launching a national cryptocurrency. Many countries today are implementing a partial, rather than a full ban on cryptocurrency. In case of cryptocurrencies, governments understand that it is impossible to ban them entirely. With regard to the globalization of economy and  distributed registry technologies, which form the foundation for cryptocurrencies, a complete ban will lead not only to the migration of financial assets and mining farms out of the country, but also to the departure of startups outside the country’s jurisdiction, startups that could have become taxpayers in the presence of supportive regulations,” believes Alexey Nasonov, the founder and CEO of Worldcore.

SOURCE: EuropaWire

Fast Invest will allow users to use their bitcoin or ethereum as collateral for loans in traditional currencies

Essex, UK, 13-Dec-2017 — /EuropaWire/ — Fast Invest is excited to announce the launch of its native cryptocurrency token (FIT) during their upcoming ICO launched on December 4th. The FinTech company has been operating since 2015 in the investment loan space, connecting funders with loan-seekers in a peer-to-peer exchange. With more than 8,500 daily users from 36 countries, Fast Invest is expanding into the largely unoccupied cryptocurrency lending sector.

Blockchain-based cryptocurrencies have been rapidly in 2017, racking up a seventeen times (at the time of this press release) increase in market capitalization since the beginning of 2017.  As these financial technologies mature new opportunities arise, especially for unbanked and underbanked populations. This is because digital currencies allow for the exchange of value without the need for central banks or other intermediaries. Fast Invest aims to leverage these developments to democratize investment by allowing people to invest as little as one dollar on their loan platform. This enables users to band together to crowdfund a loan that gets paid back with interest, which can then generate returns for the loan suppliers.

In what may be a first for the industry, Fast Invest will allow users to use their bitcoin or ethereum as collateral for loans in traditional currencies. Due to the nature of smart contracts, loans like this can be executed with very little human input and all parties can be sure that the terms of the loan will be carried out. This is because smart contracts utilize code and mathematics to enforce agreements without the need for human intervention.

By expanding to cryptocurrency-based investment instruments the company aims to reduce friction in the world of P2P investment and loan services. These offerings include a cryptocurrency exchange, digital wallet for holding tokens, cryptocurrency investment services, decentralized lending, and a payment card that can be funded by cryptocurrencies but used like a credit card.

SOURCE: EuropaWire