A revolution in global investment — democratizing access to wealth

Have you ever wondered how rich people stay rich, even in times of economic downturn or crisis? Or why just one percent of the world owns half of the world’s wealth? What do they have that you don’t? Inheritance? An Ivy League education? Perhaps. But they also have access. Access to the best-breed of financial services and investments.

The elitist nature of alternative investments and limited access to the best opportunities in real estate, private equity, and venture capital is deep-rooted. There are high barriers to entry making these alternative investments illiquid and leaving the majority locked outside the club. This is where tokenization and SMART VALOR come in.

Tokenization Of Assets

Tokenization of these assets can fundamentally transform the way these investments are issued and distributed, making them accessible to a broader audience of investors. The alternative investment class is changing rapidly, recently getting its truly innovative addition: digital assets. These are assets represented by a cryptographic token such as cryptocurrencies, blockchain protocols, or other types of tokens. And they’re gaining in popularity. To give you some context, collectively, these assets reached an all-time peak of $800 billion earlier this year! You may have heard about price surges and crashes within cryptocurrency markets. Yet, despite their high volatility, the unique characteristics of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin still allowed investors to earn a 5'700% return over the last four years.

Outside the cryptocurrency space, new infrastructure projects and startups are raising money through the issuance of tokens. So-called Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) have already completely eclipsed traditional forms of financing, through Venture Capital companies. This year alone, according to CoinDesk, over $20 billion has already flown into ICOs. By comparison, total VC fundraising last year peaked at $55 billion. With many more cryptocurrencies emerging and new infrastructure projects and startups arriving in the form of a token, the new class of digital assets today can no longer be ignored. At SMART VALOR, we believe that any investor structuring an alternative investments portfolio needs to seriously consider these digital assets. And we’re helping them to do so.

The Problem We Are Aiming To Solve

The path to investing in new digital assets is fraught with countless roadblocks: relentless hackers, legal uncertainty, and poor user experience, to name just a few. Moreover, the majority of investment platforms and exchanges run as unauthorized businesses, holding limited legal obligations in regards to investor protection. In fact, some $2.3 billion in crypto assets have already been lost in various hacking attacks. All this makes investment in digital assets an unnecessarily cumbersome and potentially dangerous task for traditional investors.

Being part of the first wave of Bitcoin businesses, in the last four years, we learned a lot about what investors in the alternative investment space are seeking. Through our VALOR platform, SMART VALOR is enabling easy, safe, secure, and compliant access to alternative investments for all investors independent of their net-worth or location. For these investors, we solve the problem of legitimacy and security in the cryptocurrency space. We give them access to alternative investments, which are not available to them today. This USD $7 trillion industry is currently only accessible to rich and influential people in developed countries.

The tokenization of assets is a real game-changer that will democratize access to wealth and change how people around the world invest forever.

This Is Where SMART VALOR Comes In

Being part of the first wave of Bitcoin businesses, in the last four years, we learned a lot about what investors in the alternative investment space are seeking. Through our VALOR platform, SMART VALOR is enabling easy, safe, secure, and compliant access to alternative investments for all investors independent of their net-worth or location.

For these investors, we solve the problem of legitimacy and security in the cryptocurrency space. We give them access to alternative investments, which are not available to them today. This USD $7 trillion industry is currently only accessible to rich and influential people in developed countries.

The tokenization of assets is a real game-changer that will democratize access to wealth and change how people around the world invest forever.

Wha Is In It For The Asset Owners?

SMART VALOR is providing a marketplace for tokenized alternative assets. In other words, it is an online investment platform where investors and asset owners (or issuers) come together. Asset issuers can be any type of private company, fund, real estate developer, or other player offering investment products to the public. The core value proposition we offer them is:

Issuance of their asset-backed tokens Initial listing and secondary trading on the VALOR Platform

The key benefit for an asset issuer is access to a new investor base, for example, the USD $4 trillion-heavy Swiss-based global investor pool. A provider of, say, real estate in Switzerland gains access to a global investor base ready and waiting to take part in this opportunity via cryptocurrency rails.

The tokenization functionality enables asset issuers to offer these previously not-very-liquid investments in the form of an asset-backed token. This token, fractional and instantly exchangeable living on a global P2P network is much easier to handle than a Limited Partner paper contract in the region of millions of dollars. To enable this exchange of ownership in a less liquid asset class, the SMART VALOR platform implements a set of smart-contract based auctions. You can check out how the reverse Dutch Auction is implemented on the Hyperledger blockchain in our working prototype here: demo.smartvalor.io

How Will We Do It?

The VALOR Platform will be rolled out in two major stages. The reason for this staged approach is the necessary regulatory approval process. This year, SMART VALOR is focusing on cryptocurrencies and non-security tokens. In the second stage of the roll-out, after receiving further license, we will focus on security tokens.

Within the security token space, we will specifically zero-in on tokens backed by equity in young companies, infrastructure projects, crypto funds, real estate, venture capital, and private equity — a diverse, new world of alternative investments!

Who Is Behind SMART VALOR?

SMART VALOR AG is a Swiss-based company founded in April 2017 by Dr. Julien Bringer, Thomas Felber, and Oliver and Olga Feldmeier. Today, our team consists of 31 full-time contributors working mainly in the Swiss Crypto Valley, Zug.

CEO Olga Feldmeier previously pioneered the Bitcoin regulatory solution in Switzerland, as Commercial Managing Partner of renowned Bitcoin custodian Xapo. Our team was selected by Thomson Reuters out of hundreds of applicants to become part of the Thomson Reuters Incubator, where we are headquartered today. SMART VALOR was also recognized by Forbes as one of Europe’s 10 most exciting technology SMEs in 2018.

We’re currently preparing the roll-out of our Early-Access Program. So, stay tuned and subscribe here to keep up with our latest developments, and let us help you diversify your alternative assets portfolio!