Dear Community,

How was your 2019?

Ours was relentlessly working towards raising awareness about tokenisation. We met numerous potential issuers from various industries. We spoke to regulators and lobbied changes in the local securities law. We sold our technology and know-how to upcoming crypto businesses. We became members of the main EU crowdfunding organisation ECN and local Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LTRK). And, we are now planning several tokenisation projects to be announced in the New Year.

Now, to celebrate the Year End, we are giving away 40 Ethereum CoinPlus Pre-Launch Edition Solo cards.
A completely non-electronic wallet to guarantee offline safety of your Ethereum blockchain based assets: ETH coins and ERC tokens. The Solo cards can be used as a backup, or as physical cold wallet for your Ethereum based crypto. To learn about Solo cold wallet, visit CoinPlus website or give us a buzz in our Telegram group chat.

To find out more about the giveaway, visit:
https://news.fintelum.com/fintelum-coinplus-solo-card-giveaway/

About Fintelum Fintelum has established a custom token launch platform to cater to token issuers in carrying out technically sound and compliant ICO/STO token sales. Fintelum was founded in 2018 and subsequently licensed by the Estonian FIU to provide services for the crypto industry in compliance with EU AML laws.

This is an interview with Fintelum CEO Liza Aizupiete


TeqAtlas: How did you come to be interested in the Digital Securities space?

Liza Aizupiete: A tech-savvy colleague introduced Bitcoin to me about 7 years ago. Given my libertarian penchants, I immediately took to it. Soon enough, I pondered what business should be built around what I thought of as “the future of money”.

With our team, at the time, we worked in trading and portfolio management. We traded both physical and derivative commodities. We employed various arbitrage strategies in listed exchange instruments, especially in commodities globally and myself, particularly in China mainland.

From this background, combined with not-so-stellar experience in trading on then-existing bitcoin exchanges, we decided that a quality and regulated bitcoin trading venue should be established. That is how we started to build an EMI (electronic money institution) licensed exchange.

It also carried out a successful ICO, pre-selling platform fees in the form of utility tokens. However, following the fundraise, with my team, we were unfortunately ousted from our company, as founders and minority shareholders. Instead of going to court, we decided to build Fintelum.

Our new venture deals directly with the issues we previously encountered: having greedy venture capital investors vying for control and takeover in our own company. We believe crowdfunding in many projects can be a better alternative to giving up control to one or several investors. Equity or debt crowdfunding schemes offer a variety of setups and investor rights.

Today, Fintelum is an IT development and compliance provider, authorised by the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) to provide cryptocurrency custodian wallet and exchange services in compliance with EU AML laws.

Our main product is a token launch platform, specialising in security token offering (STO) and initial coin offering (ICO) primary issuance and secondary P2P trading with emphasis on Know Your Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance and technology services.

We have also developed our own STO implementation and can, therefore, operate as a security or utility crowdfunding platform, tokenising any type of assets with the opportunity of trading them on a P2P secondary market.

TA: What is your unique approach to determining if the project is suitable for the tokenisation?

LA: We get a lot of inquiries from various industries, especially in real- estate. We encourage physical industries to consider tokenisation as a fundraising option. There are also those who look at tokenisation as an exit strategy for their early investment. We get both utility and security token issuance inquiries, with a predominant interest in securities offerings.

The project’s suitability can be assessed from the point of view of an investor. If the project is a pure white paper idea without a ready minimum viable product (MVP), or there are no clear benefits to why an investor may want to own the project, then such project is likely to be too early or unfit for tokenisation. Such projects may, however, qualify for grants or donations, depending on the business case.

TA: Have you ever refused to provide the DSO (Digital Securities Offering) services to any company? What were the reasons? What companies do you think are not suited for DSOs?

LA: Yes, we have been upfront with our potential clients as to what we can and what we cannot do for them. Many turn away as a consequence, expecting more than this industry can offer. Some, we have advised about other sources of financing instead. And to some others, we have told outright that their project needs more development. To others again, we offer our own IT development services. We’ll see if they decide to tokenise in the end. To yet others, we are able to provide our product as a white-labeled solution — namely, an exchange product both centralised and decentralised; wallet systems; blockchain solutions and much more.

TA: There is a lot of interest in the DSO fundraising instrument among the real estate related companies. What are the reasons for that as per your opinion?

LA: Real estate is something tangible and relatively stable as an asset. Also, for some real estate owners, tokenisation presents itself as either a financing option or an outright exit strategy.

TA: The EU adopted a new prospectus regulation recently to streamline the EU prospectus regime. Will this impact on how you do KYC/AML or DSO process in general?

LA: We at Fintelum have been counting down to 21 July 2019, when the new regulation comes into force to increase the threshold to EUR 8m where issuers are exempt from publishing a full prospectus, as proposed by the EU Our processes are compliant with the EU KYC/AML requirements. Namely, they are fully in line with the 5th EU AML directive.

Indeed, we applaud to EU-wide uniform prospectus regime and process simplification. We also hope each member state will implement the maximum possible threshold for a prospectus-free issue, as well as we hope that EU institutions will move swiftly to adopt the EU Crowdfunding Regulation. This means startups and various tokenisation projects will be able to raise public capital as well as access the subsequent secondary market more easily.

TA: Could you please comment on the recent news on the FCA’s ban on financial instruments linked to digital cryptocurrencies? How could this impact blockchain service providers that are working in the Digital Securities space?

LA: It is not clear what came over the lenient and reasonable regulator thus far, the UK’s FCA. My hope is that the recent proposal to ban financial instruments linked to digital cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin will not come into force. If it does, however, this may incite a thriving and inevitable under-the-radar market. We firmly believe that financial education is the answer, not legally prohibiting financial innovation from happening.

TA: What do you think will help resolve issues related to the extreme volatility of the crypto assets?

LA: It is important to, first of all, distinguish crypto assets as currencies from other types of assets, such as security or utility tokens. Tokens that are not payment tokens are stable in so far as their represented underlying assets are stable. Whereas cryptocurrencies, be it Bitcoin, Ether or more privacy cantered Monero are still very new currencies. It’s perfectly acceptable that a new currency is taking time and exhibiting certain volatility along the way of establishing itself as an accepted means of payment.

If you just want to use stable digital money, you may as well use a centralised, stable coin that purports to have 1:1 peg to some widely accepted asset such as the US Dollar. However, it is not the purpose of decentralised cryptographic money. The whole point is to offer an alternative monetary system, where the money supply is not tampered with by anonymous private central bankers, affiliated to governments.

Therefore, I do not believe that the volatility is a problem as far as payment cryptocurrencies go. Rather, it’s a necessary side-effect of a free-market currency. A stable monetary asset is the one, where demand and supply are in relative balance. It can be achieved by ever-increasing points of contact, where these assets are required to circulate. Therefore, it will take a wider acceptance as a means of payment for cryptocurrencies to gain stability. Not only as a payment for coffee in cyberpunk cafes, but also as means of exchange for bulk commodities in industrial use and financial assets priced in crypto.

TA: Why do you think most retail investors have difficulties with properly valuing crypto assets? What would you suggest they do?

LA: It is not easy to evaluate anything in life, let alone a myriad of investment opportunities currently presenting to the retail investors. On the one hand, it is great that the doors swing wide open to retail with opportunities never possible before. On the other hand, it is a real problem to navigate the scene, especially in crypto assets.

I predict that there will be more standardised analytics options available to the investing community. Analytics tools that employ artificial intelligence to classify and score the given investment opportunity. Then there are also investors who voice their opinion publicly or the so-called influencers. I would suggest caution and maximum disclosure from anyone who recommends investment into any particular asset. Listen less to the hype and evaluate individually the investment quality of the project or asset.

Finally, investment always involves risk. With democratising access to investment opportunities, we do not modify statistics about success ratios. There will still be 9/10 early-stage projects that fail. As long as full disclosures have been provided, we can at least try to weed out the bad actors.

TA: What do you think the future holds in terms of finding a balance between outdated regulatory framework and FinTech innovations?

LA: With regards to small capitalisation markets and crypto, there are three points that the regulators will need to come to terms with. There are no 100% effective preventive measures for stopping fraud. The best way is to require full disclosure rather than stop the game itself.

The issuer with or without a prospectus requirement should be able to act on their own account; it is not a licensed activity to solicit public funds within certain limits. The issuers should also be free to use technical, legal, marketing and other service providers, the regulator should not stipulate any required entities, as it leads to inevitable cronyism and closed competition. Representing securities or utilities with a cryptographic token may need to be elaborated as a law.

And finally, we will need a wider definition for cryptoassets as a perfectly acceptable means of payment. Germany and Japan have been at the forefront of admitting cryptocurrencies to be either “private money” or “accepted means of payment”.

TA: The blockchain service providers market is growing day by day — as does their competition. Have you experienced this in the niche you are operating in? What is your main approach to attract new clients?

LA: This is true in wider financial markets. There is a certain shift of preference for consumers from old school financial service providers to new and disruptive players. The competition is also on the rise amongst banking disruptors. Although the core services remain the same, the newcomers win by placing emphasis on user experience and most importantly — the speed of execution. As for various blockchain-related projects, it depends on the services industry.

For us, the small capitalisation markets, or crypto crowdfunding space is still very new, when it comes to securities issuance. There are indeed a handful of securities issuance instances, not counting self-made projects, that have been successful. Today, we are still in a FFF (friends, fools and family) stage for STO industry development at large.

TA: Many blockchain companies operating in the DSO space attract partners among blockchain technology solutions to occupy a larger market share together. What do you think of this approach?

LA: Indeed, it has been a trend to announce various partnerships for issuance platforms and trading venues, or compliance providers with legal services providers and alike. Consolidation is a valid strategy in the present state of development. The utility token (ICO) bubble has been burst by the regulatory scrutiny and the security (STO) token issuance is indeed slow to takeoff.

For Fintelum, it is also possible to envisage a partner in the space. Despite the wide scope of services that we can put on the table. Namely, primary security or utility token issuance, secondary P2P trading, white-labeling and IT development. Fintelum could still benefit from partnerships in the space for marketing and distribution as well as legal counsel, ready to help advise our clients across all EU jurisdictions.

With the help of our own STO implementation, we ensure compliance with the issuer’s jurisdiction laws and provide the full scope of technical and compliance tools to carry out the fundraise or P2P trade. There is, however, always a space to collaborate, and we’re open to partnerships.

https://news.fintelum.com/teqatlas-qa-with-liza-aizupiete-of-fintelum-digital-securities-ecosystem-innovations-in-fintech/

Fintelum Security Token Offering (STO) implementation is an Ethereum Solidity code base. Built as a standard protocol with modular features, it is designed to tackle the need for a compliant blockchain instrument for the capital markets industry. Most notably, to have a blockchain based tool to represent a transferable security instrument in a given jurisdiction.

This paper describes the code functionality in terms of features. And, it explains the necessity of such implementation as defined by Fintelum business needs within the European Union (EU) laws.
The paper assumes the readers have the basic understanding of how cryptocurrencies work and what blockchains are. It also assumes the reader is familiar with the basic functioning of capital markets and specifically the methods of fundraising and organised trading.

Access the whitepaper here: https://www.fintelum.com/whitepaper/

[Private equity or venture capital funding]

What are your Alternatives?


Private equity or venture capital funding

When you are just starting out, it is yourself or/and the proverbial triple FFF (friends, family and fools) and perhaps business angels that contributes to the birth of your startup business morphing from an idea in to a company. Then, you begin to look around for more seed or growth funding. Typically these are venture capital or risk capital funds that are eager to jump on the opportunity of the next uber-big venture. Their profit expectations are usually in the range of 20-30% per annum. Whereas, if they hit it big with your great idea, they may even touch 2-20x return, depending how well you do on the exit. Attracting venture capital is generally applauded and celebrated as an achievement. There are some disadvantages however worth mentioning.

One such disadvantage is a possible oversized loss of equity. An equity investor may require anywhere from 10% to 90% of your company. Depending on the shareholder agreement, any milestones or strict targets, even the most benevolent investor may turn out to be a vulture preying on your company. It is important therefore to always weigh all pros and cons about letting in a new equity holder with special requirements. As the saying goes, investors invest in people, not projects. When deciding on an investment option, the same should be said about startups accepting funding: you should seek out long-term partnerships with people, not just the money, at any perilous cost.

The other disadvantage of attracting venture capital or private equity investor is the diminished management control. When a serious firm or individual bring in a substantial amount of funding to a startup, it typically comes with a requirement of management and expenditure control. It is understandable for someone who puts up large amount of money on a promise alone to want to actually see and control the way the money is spent. The easiest way to yield control and oversight is to require a seat at the management or supervisory boards of the company. Once a controlling seat is given, with it comes a diminished executive power for the top management. It becomes harder to push through major decisions, and expenditure amounts that exceed those stipulated in the shareholder agreement. Each major decision gets to be questioned and not always by the most quick minded likes of people. It may, of course, turn out to be a blessing than a curse. For startups that lack experience or clear vision. But it is usually a hindrance and not a boon.

To sum up, private equity or venture capital investor may very well be of benefit to the young startup founders. But, the disadvantages of oversized loss of equity and a certain loss of management control may be the reasons for seeking other options.

Debt

Another way of financing a business is taking a loan, or issuing a convertible loan against future equity. If you are an established company, for short-term purposes you may issue other forms of debt, such as mezzanine, or you may get long term financing in the form of debenture.

A loan is given by a private, or an institutional investor, such as a bank. A loan however ideally is given against a collateral. A loan is basically a credit. However, credit is something you have to earn first. Taking a loan therefore is usually reserved to companies that already have revenue streams, or have high potential for earnings. Taking a loan to spend on a startup is risky for the taker beyond high interest rates. The most real risk is borne by the founder on repayment. As a founder you may need to pledge your private property or find a guarantor to act in your favour and on your behalf, to satisfy credit collateral requirements. Debt instruments like corporate bonds are regulated securities and also incur costs of issuance.

IPOs – are they relevant at all?

IPOs are also called the exit. This usually is the exit strategy for early equity investors and venture capitalists, as well as founders. But, the IPO route is open to largely mature companies with certain revenue streams and proven track record. A typical IPO-ready company would have to show uniqueness not only in differentiating business idea, or solid management, but also have a proven track record of profitability, revenue growth and guarantee a substantial market capitalisation for a liquid market trading.

Preparing for an IPO is expensive. It traditionally involves heavy legal efforts on drafting the prospectus and finding the right underwriter investment bank to initially back the business. But this process is also no longer being upheld in its entirety. An exemplifying case is a recent going public of a company called Slack. The social network platform followed the lead by Spotify to get the company listed without actually going through the IPO process.

The major downside of an IPO process amounts to expense and time the company needs assume to fulfil all the legal requirements prescribed by each jurisdiction. Both Spotify and Slack in the USA demonstrate that costs are being cut away where logically possible. If your company has gained a recognisability and social following by the virtue of its services, you may not even need to go down the expensive IPO route. It could cost the issuing company anywhere starting with USD 2m to USD 10m to prepare and pay all related fees for an IPO. Although the law is clear on security issuance, with the advent of primary listing, IPO industry is seeing a certain revamping of the process.

The bottom line being: either of the alternatives discussed above are distracting, time- consuming, irrelevant or outright expensive.



Source: https://www.fintelum.com/blog/what-are-your-alternatives/

This is part 1 of a 5 part series.

So you have a small business, or you are just starting out, setting up your company. Chances are, you probably run short on funding your great, big idea. Or, you have done some preparatory work to take you to a minimum viable product (MVP), but have little steam left to take your product to the market. Or better yet, your product is a proven working concept, but you still need that extra funding to take your small business to the next level.

Every business needs funding fuel to grow. Up until breaking even. And even then, to reach the next expansion levels, businesses need funding to grow and develop. Indeed, a survey on reasons why startups tend to fail in 9/10 cases admit that one of the top reasons for start-up ventures to fail is the lack of funding.

So what are your options? Not counting grants and subsidies, there are typically two main ways, of funding your business. The capital markets are largely available either in the form of debt or equity funding. The following will be an overview of the currently available funding avenues that companies have at their disposal. From the traditional private equity or debt to less conventional crowdfunding. Indeed, the most recent tokenisation method is the next step in evolution of the capital markets.

To view the original article: https://www.fintelum.com/blog/security-tokens-or-sto-next-step-in-evolution-of-capital-markets-thought-leaders/

Fintelum Easter arrangement!

To inaugurate the launch of Fintelum services, we invite potential token issuers to take part in our Easter arrangement. From 21 March to 21 April 2019, Fintelum will wave half the onboarding fee to all eligible token issuers who come through during this time.

Contact Fintelum here (https://www.fintelum.com/organiser/) to launch your compliant ICO or STO token sale.

In addition, to energetic self-starters, using the hashtag #TokeniseYourAssets in your social media will help land an internship and work opportunity with Fintelum.

Contact Fintelum at info@fintelum.com for more information.

Managing Director Liza Aizupiete, with her long-time team members have completed development of a token launch platform, providing an ICO/STO toolkit that allows businesses to raise funds via token sale.

Fintelum team created a professional token launch platform. It delivers some of the most crucial functions for a crypto/fiat crowdfunding campaign. The Fintelum platform is a KYC/AML profiling and ongoing compliance toolkit. It incorporates exchange grade co-custodian wallet functions and security/utility Ethereum blockchain based token creation.

To serve the security token industry, Fintelum acts as a transfer agent. It is also able to provide secondary token OTC exchange desk functions, with ongoing corporate action services. For utility token industry, Fintelum provides a full scope of compliance services. Thus, enabling more efficient access to global banking, token listing, and liquidity services for the issuers.

In August of last year, Fintelum was licensed by the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The license allows Fintelum to provide services in compliance with the EU AML laws.

Fintelum’s campaign, #TokeniseYourAssets, intends to raise awareness about crypto crowdfunding. It targets businesses and startups on benefits of tokenising assets via a token sale process. The intention is to provoke change in the financial markets industry. Fintelum business is promoting tokenisation as an alternative form of capital raising.

"By advancing tokenisation of assets and businesses, we are precipitating the change in the capital markets and financial industry as a whole."
/Liza Aizupiete – Managing Director of Fintelum/


For individual and institutional investors, Fintelum is an operator of a compliant crypto crowdfunding platform. There, participants are on-boarded and continuously served. The ongoing services include: security token transfer agency; secondary token OTC exchange desk, as well as ongoing corporate action services.

For token issuers, Fintelum is a comprehensive ICO/STO token launch platform. Issuers enjoy a suite of services, such as: smart contract creation; AML/KYC; dashboard and data access; escrow/custodian functions; and ongoing corporate action services like announcements, voting and dividend distribution.

For business enquiries, please contact: info@fintelum.com

Original publication: https://www.fintelum.com/blog/fintelum-compliant-token-launch-platform-is-ready-for-business/

Liza Aizupiete is the Managing Director at Fintelum, a European-based token launch (ICO and STO) platform. Liza has extensive experience in traditional fund management, and is also an experienced blockchain entrepreneur, having successfully launched and raised capital (ICO) for Globitex where she was a Co-Founder and Managing Director.


RS: You’ve recently launched a company called Fintelum, can you tell us a bit more about what Fintelum does and what markets it serves.

LA: Fintelum services can be summarised as follows:
– Primary token issuance
– KYC/AML compliance
– Smart contracts (utility and security tokens)
– Crypto funds co-custody
– Token transfer agency
– Corporate actions
– Secondary token OTC exchange desk

At Fintelum, we built a token launch platform to cater to token issuers in carrying out technically sound and compliant ICO/STO token sales. Fintelum is geared to provide services on the European soil for global clientele. The main services are compliance, crypto funds co-custody, and smart contracts. For security token industry, Fintelum serves as a token ownership transfer agent, ensuring secondary market by token OTC desk and provides ongoing blockchain-based corporate action services, such as voting, dividends and announcements.


RS: How does Fintelum differ from other token issuance companies?

LA: Fintelum’s unique selling points are:
– Integrated crypto multisig wallet services and funds co-custody
– Token transfer agency and OTC exchange desk
– Comprehensive on demand reporting

Fintelum was founded in 2018 and subsequently licensed by the Estonian FIU to provide services for crypto industry in compliance with EU AML laws. The main differentiators lie within the benefits Fintelum clients can have from a longtime team with experience in finance and building and running our own regulated cryptocurrency exchange.

For one, Fintelum features multi-currency cold/hot wallet management system with co-custodianship for added reliability. Issuers can be reassured that all technical, blockchain and compliance related work will be carried out with utmost care. For that we have built a comprehensive backoffice, where issuers can safely navigate and control their fundraise. From creating campaigns and programs to managing investor data and affiliates.

Another differentiator is our Ethereum based security token STO implementation and subsequent OTC desk. Fintelum is able to act as a token transfer agent, maintaining blockchain based capitalisation tables or shareholder registry for companies or other tokenised assets. We are creating unprecedented availability for eligible (whitelisted) peers to exchange both security and utility tokens.

For utility token, Fintelum differentiates with our systematic approach in KYC/AML compliance. There, after a successful fundraise, the issuers can rely on a comprehensive reporting system. All data collected and verified can be made available to banks and other financial institutions that would otherwise be unable to service a non-compliant enterprise. In fact we have several banks and payment service providers that can offer fiat services to Fintelum clients.

On the whole, Fintelum services pack-in some of the most crucial features to successfully launch a crypto fundraise. The issuers will still need to have their own local legal counsel and have a clear idea of their own marketing strategy, whereas Fintelum will do the rest. It is safe to say that Fintelum service package is the most comprehensive available on the market.


RS: You have extensive experience in fintech and funds, what reasons did you choose to start a token issuance company instead of some other type of crypto service or business?

LA: In short:
– Companies sought our know-how
– Understanding of the industry and technology
– Anticipation of the global change in the capital markets

After having successfully completed a EUR 10 million ICO fundraise, for our former company, several projects approached us to learn how crypto crowdfunding works. And as compliance and AML took precedence over anonymous crypto donations, we thought it natural to expand on our experience and institutional understanding how the capital markets will likely evolve. ICOs or utility tokens already made a historical mark on capital markets industry. Likewise, STOs or security tokens will continue reshaping capital markets and we are excited to precipitate this change with our new business.


RS: You previously did an ICO with your former company, Globitex, what did you learn from that ICO that can help token issuers on the Fintelum platform?

LA: Our advice:
– Find the right partners
– Work with professionals
– Grow your community

Our major takeaways from running an ICO was that it matters a lot at what stage your company is, what shareholders and partners you have and which service providers you choose for your fundraiser. You may have a wonderful idea, technically impeccable product. But you need professional service providers that will do everything else for your fundraise to actually happen.

We were very lucky with ours. We managed to raise EUR 10 million and closed our public sale in a matter of 24 hours. Not discounting the timing when we ran our campaign, it is also important to have a clear idea of whom you want to target as your investors and/or product users – your community. Because an ICO as well as STO campaign works inadvertently as a marketing campaign for your current or future product or service. And you need to invest the time and effort to reach out to your community, to show the world that your product exists and is worth investing in.

It is worth noting that STOs make more legal sense, but much less retail buzz. The times of raising hundreds of millions for a white paper ideas with no hard cap are definitely gone. But ICOs are not dead. I still anticipate some major utility tokens to be released this and next year. STOs on the other hand can work beautifully under crowdfunding law exceptions up to EUR 5-8 million, and above – according to the Prospectus Regulation (in July 2019 replacing the Directive) in Europe.

For the ICOs a fixed and guaranteed hard cap will add to the success and popularity of the fundraiser. With STOs, hard cap is replaced by clear legal rights and expectations.


RS: What types of companies do you think are best suited to launch an STO?

LA: In my view:
– Small or medium working businesses, ideally with revenue streams
– Global fund management companies with existing subscribers (investors)
– Real estate or financing projects with attractive interest rate offer
– Alternative energy projects with eco impact and good dividend prospect
– Gaming and sports with large retail following

Today, the potential buyer of an STO will need to overcome burdensome KYC/AML profiling process to be compliant with the sales of a security. And depending on the jurisdiction and the project offering, the pain levels may vary. But it is clear that investing in an STO or ICO today is much more complicated than just a year ago would have been, contributing towards a development of a utility token project. This is why the STO must be attractive enough an offer for the pain of investing. Indeed, for equity or debt tokens, an STO issuer needs to have a great proposition on the table to be able to attract investment.


RS: What types of companies would you personally like to see launch in the cryptocurrency space to help the industry as a whole reach wider adoption?

LA: I’d bet on:
– Sports and games
– Virtual reality
– Food

At Fintelum, we get disproportionally more enquires from real-estate related companies than from any other sectors. This is presently the case. And it may be due to the fact that real estate is a hard asset. Like commodities, precious metals, real estate is something people understand. Investing in complex equity schemes may require more sophistication and/or risk appetite. Whereas I would personally like to see utility tokens continue to persist. We have come across several great ideas. But the fear of the present downmarket poses resistance and unwillingness from the managers to delve into the process of launching a token.

The three categories, namely sports/games, VR and food industries are most appropriate for ICO type of fundraise, because of the loyal retail client base they all either have or have the potential of commanding. Finance as a sector has already been done, with caveats. It brought about institutional interests, and serious price volatility as a result. But, by tapping into the mass market though either of these industries, we may be able to sustain a steady and solid adoption rate.


RS: You’ve been a female entrepreneur in the cryptocurrency space for over three years, can you tell us about any benefits or challenges being female in a male-dominated field may have brought?

LA: I was born in Latvia and educated in Switzerland. According to Open Knowledge report by the World Bank, six economies—Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg, Sweden and topping-off with Latvia —score 100 in the Women, Business and the Law index, meaning they give women and men equal legal rights in the measured areas, whereas Switzerland scores just marginally below at 97.50. In fact Latvia has the highest proportion of female executives in the entire EU, according to the latest EuroStat survey.

This shows that generally women should not be experiencing any difference or special challenges in the developed world economies. And it is no different in the nascent crypto space. Although the industry is predominantly male, the rules are the same for both genders. Hence, I have not felt particular challenges being a female entrepreneur. Indeed, the only challenges are mostly self imposed. This is because, by some gender bias, females tend to be more critical, especially of themselves. So, if anything, the challenges are self inflicted and are completely unrelated to external factors.


RS: Can you describe briefly what you think the next two years looks like for ICOs and STOs.

LA: The coming years will be a slow recovery from the ICO exuberance that culminated in the years 2017-18. It will be a recovery and maturing of the cryptocurrency and crypto assets industry, where STO will have an important place, setting precedents across jurisdictions.

ICOs had reached unprecedented 10-fold returns on investment, raising in excess of USD 20 billion in funding, in the years combined. The crypto fundraising will continue, but it will happen in a more professional way; more law-abiding manner; hopefully, innovative at the same time.

It would be unfortunate, if the law makers decided that we don’t actually need innovation, and that the existing system is good enough as it is. My hope is that competition will increase, and the barriers of entry will not be disproportionally raised. So the new entrants and innovators can have a chance of their lifetime to actually make the word a better place.


RS: Is there anything else you would like to share with the readers?

LA: To inaugurate the launch of Fintelum services, I invite potential token issuers to take part in our Easter arrangement. From 21 March to 21 April 2019, Fintelum will wave half the onboarding fee to all eligible token issuers who come through during this time.


Contact Fintelum here to launch your compliant ICO or STO token sale.

In addition, to energetic self-starters, using the hashtag #TokeniseYourAssets in your social media will help land an internship and work opportunity with Fintelum.

Contact Fintelum at info@fintelum.com for more information.


Link to the original interview: https://www.securities.io/interview-series-liza-aizupiete-managing-director-of-fintelum/

[EARN]

AGENT OPPORTUNITY

Start honing your crypto analyst skills and get paid!

Dear Crypto Community,

Join the STO revolution or pursue ICO innovation!

Fintelum invites YOU to get back to work and EARN commission on YOUR efforts.

Enrol to become a start-up ANALYST and introduce promising projects to Fintelum for an instant COMMISSION and substantial SUCCESS FEE.

Fintelum is a comprehensive ICO/STO token launch, smart contract, AML/KYC, compliance, crypto currency escrow/custodian platform with transfer agency, secondary token OTC desk and ongoing corporate action services. We can serve ICO as well as STO across your choice of jurisdictions.

Learn more about Fintelum TOKEN LAUNCH PLATFORM: https://www.fintelum.com
Enrol to become a Fintelum AGENT: https://www.fintelum.com/affiliate/

Hello Community!

I just wanted to find out whether any of you have thought about running an ICO/STO for yourselves!

Share your views, pros and cons in the comments!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF0Kl_DCgLA

Dear Community,
Here is the long awaited interview of Liza Aizupiete speaking about the cryptocurrency industry and her personal experience while running a crypto start-up, closing an ICO, and setting up Fintelum. Enjoy!

[After a successful ICO and a controversial ousting earlier this year, Liza Aizupiete, the former Managing Director of Globitex, and her team are back; and are stronger than ever, with the launch of their brand-new venture, Fintelum.]

After a successful ICO and a controversial ousting earlier this year, Liza Aizupiete, the former Managing Director of Globitex, and her team are back; and are stronger than ever, with the launch of their brand-new venture, Fintelum.

Fintelum is a blockchain technology initiative, which aims to provide businesses and individuals with useful everyday cryptocurrency solutions.

Headed up by Liza, the Fintelum team is formed of highly experienced professionals, who previously built a regulated cryptocurrency exchange Globitex and worked to successfully close a landmark ICO earlier this year. The team includes Arvis Ermins, as Legal and Compliance Director, as well as Maris Kaneps, as Director and the Head of IT, amongst other long-time team members.

Learning from their previous successes as well as their mistakes; the first product, the Fintelum team have developed is a fully AML/KYC compliant token sale toolkit.

In compliance with the 5th EU AML Directive, the toolkit solution caters to companies and start-ups looking to raise funds via token offering process. The service includes: contributor KYC profiling, live ID verification, AML checks, co-management of crypto funds and issuance of the Ethereum based EIP-20 (ERC-20) tokens.

The team have made strides in implementing this first product, by most recently securing two licenses from the Estonian Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU). The licensed activities are (i) providing a virtual currency wallet service and (ii) providing services of exchanging a virtual currency against a fiat currency.

Token issuing businesses that choose to follow regulated Fintelum’s token sale standards are able to access global banking, token listing and liquidity services more easily.

Make sure you keep an eye out for Fintelum’s second product to market — a free web-mobile and desktop, open-source wallet for multiple cryptocurrencies. Not only will this be completely free of charge for users but it will also effectively allow anyone to “be their own bank” by utilising the private key management system.

Liza Aizupiete, the Managing Director of Fintelum:

“The next 12 months are going to be game changers for the business along with the industry with the launch of our new products. It’s a very proud moment for me and my old team to embark on such a sizeable project. Watch this space!”

For business enquiries, visit fintelum.com