Scottish billionaire Doug Barrowman and Baroness Michelle Mone OBE have launched EQUI, a cryptocurrency-powered investment platform that is envisioned as opening up venture capital to a wider audience while providing access to vetted, early-stage high-growth tech companies.

Businesses on the platform have been hand-selected by a team of established venture capitalists, led by Barrowman, who has 30-plus years experience in identifying investments that deliver outstanding returns. Mone brings marketing skills honed in her own fashion lines.

The vision for EQUI will champion high-tech innovators and entrepreneurs, providing a new route to investment. More than this, businesses brought on to the EQUI platform will benefit from the guidance of the experienced team, including two of the UK’s most successful business people.

EQUI is a web-based application leveraging the ethereum blockchain. Projects are showcased on the platform and participants use EQUItokens to acquire a stake in projects. Upon realization, returns are distributed to investors in the projects.

“EQUI brings venture capital investing into the modern technological era and opens the investment playing-field up to non-industry professionals, enabling them to back the next hot investment that is traditionally the preserve of institutions and ultra-high net worth individuals,” said Barrowman.

“EQUI will find the next generation of successful entrepreneurs and help to build the business success stories of tomorrow, primarily in the areas of technology and blockchain,” said Mone.

The partners talked with Block Tribune about the new project.

BLOCK TRIBUNE: Let’s start out with a fundamental question. This is a cryptocurrency-powered investment platform that’s taking on the venture capital sector. Can you explain exactly what it is?

DOUG BARROWMAN: Okay, well, obviously Equi brings back to capital investors into the modern era. So what we’ve done is we’ve built the Equi token on the Ethereum blockchain platform, an ERC20 token. And what that enables individuals to do is to buy Equi tokens and to then invest them into our projects directly where we will showcase on the Equi platform invest opportunities which traditionally would be the preserve of venture capital funds, institutions, and ultra high networks, you know?