Dear HiP Family,

This is Kai, CEO of Hip Lending, the sexy pivot of HiP Interactive Property. We have many announcements that we are very happy to share with you. HiP has come a long way and has transformed quite a bit while retaining its soul. We have shed quite a bit of unnecessary complexity and regrouped in Asia. The core of HiP was and remains in the phrase we coined “asset banking”, using hard assets as the basis of finance. The shifts we are making are manifold.

First, we are doing an IEO (Initial Exchange Offering) on CBX, a Dubai crypto-currency exchange. Our token HIP’s first use will be used on the HiP Platform to boost the interest rate for lenders. As time goes on we will incorporate other uses, but this initial mechanism binds the value to the lending volume of the platform: the more money is lent out on our platform, the more tokens are locked up, the less are on the market sloshing about. We are using the Ethereum blockchain in two ways, first for our token, and secondly with IPFS as an asset register for our loan book. Increased transparency increases investor confidence and decreases regulatory and accounting burdens.

We are doing two phases of fundraising, the first of which has already started and offers 15% of the coin supply at a 50% discount. The second phase will begin Feb. 15 and will ratchet up the price from 40% discount in three 10% tranches. If successful, we will have raised $7.8M, which will fund the business operations, allow us to purchase many new lending licenses in Thailand, and allow us to make a healthy profit lending the business’ money.

Second, we are going to market in Thailand, and this is where the complexity reduction comes in. Asset banking in its final form includes many asset classes and some of these classes are more complex than others. Perhaps the simplest of all is gold, pure gold. Gold is highly prized in Thailand and people pay 15% per year to borrow against it.

Precious Metal

Unlicensed lending in Thailand is what banks are calling “The 5 trillion baht (~$180B) problem”, which is why these new lending licenses were introduced. These licenses are not easy to get: they are expensive, require government connections, and there will be a limited number of them, but we have the right people on our team for the job. These licenses alone will allow us to enter other ASEAN markets, raise more capital, and charge more interest.

Third, we are positioning ourselves to ride the neobank fintech revolution that is sweeping the investment world. Monzo has 2M users and a $2B valuation without any ROI on deposits. A fintech startup N26 has a $3.5B valuation with 3.5M users and no ROI. Starling Bank offers less than 1% on deposits, has 1M users and has raised over $300M. There is a huge appetite for even bare bones banking services offered in an elegant mobile design, and we will be offering > 4% interest rates in a slick mobile app, first to market in Thailand, putting us way ahead of both the neo and paleobanks. Once we have landed via gold backed lending, we will expand into other asset classes, including real estate, looping back into the original HiP Interactive Property idea.

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has helped us get to this point for their support. Team members, investors, advisors, we couldn’t have come this far without you, and it’s about to all be worth it. We are forming strategic partnerships with qualified investors. If you’re interested in changing the face of banking forever, contact me at kai@hiplending.com

Cheers,

Kai Peeters

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