PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Swarm Fund, a decentralized capital marketplace that provides cryptocurrency investors access to high-return, institutional-style investment funds backed by real-world assets, today announced it raised a total of $5.5 million through its public token sale, appointed co-founder Philipp Pieper as its Chief Executive Officer, and successfully held the first liquid democracy vote on its blockchain based platform.
“Now that we have completed our highly successful token sale and liquid democracy vote, we’re off to the races with our platform development, and partnering with the seed funds that will be the first investment vehicles to launch within the Swarm,” Pieper said. “I’m excited and honored to be leading the Swarm into this next, dynamic stage of growth and expansion. We are in the process of finalizing commitments from a variety of funds who are excited about participating on the platform, and anticipate a January launch of our asset tokenization platform and marketplace for asset-backed tokens.”
Successful Sale and Liquid Democracy Vote
During the sale, 8.2 million tokens were sold to members of the Swarm.
To discourage “pump and dump” buyers, Swarm Fund’s architecture leverages a “drip” liquidity system to initially lock tokens on the platform, and release them over time for trading.
Immediately following the close of the sale, Swarm successfully initiated its first liquid democracy vote to determine the actual drip liquidity release schedule of Swarm (SWM) tokens.
Members cast their token-weighted votes among several possible liquidity options, and ultimately chose four release tranches. The first tranche became liquid immediately after the vote on November 6, 2017, at which point one-fourth of each member’s tokens became transferable. This will be followed by three additional release tranches of 84 days each so that on July 16, 2018, the platform will reach full liquidity of all currently outstanding tokens.
Institutional Crowdfunding for Individual Investors
Swarm Fund allows individual investors to pool their resources and invest in a compliant manner into alternative assets and institutional asset classes, starting with private equity funds, without the high dollar minimums or lengthy capital commitments often associated with those accounts. At the same time, it opens up a new capital stack for fund managers looking to increase capital commitments, as well as the liquidity of their offerings. Pilot funds on the platform are slated to focus on distressed real estate, solar installations, software-as-a-service and cryptocurrency companies.
With a structure similar to a co-operative, Swarm Fund is owned by its members who will also determine, through the liquid democracy governance system, the administrative and philosophical direction of Swarm Fund. Liquid democracy blends aspects of direct and representative democracy by allowing individual members to vote directly on an issue, or delegate their vote to an expert they trust.
This structure can also apply to future endeavors launched through the Swarm. By leveraging the efficiencies of blockchain 3.0 technologies, Swarm provides an entire platform from which businesses can create and run new, crypto-centric enterprises, with a wellspring of funding built in.
Leadership
Pieper’s appointment as CEO underscores Swarm’s steady leadership at the top, and continuity among its executive team.
Partners Joel Dietz and Timo Lehes will continue in their leadership positions to expand and broaden Swarm’s platform and investment footprint. Following the initial release of the Swarm platform, slated for January, the Swarm will hold its first board election.
About Philipp Pieper
A serial tech entrepreneur, Pieper has been engaged in decentralized technologies since 2015, when interacting with BitTorrent, Inc. and the Mozilla Foundation. After holding various private equity and management positions within Deutsche Bank and Allianz Group, Pieper founded and became CEO of Proximic, a global data provider for digital media buyers, which was acquired by comScore in 2015. Pieper is a mentor at various accelerators, including Stanford University’s StartX, Singularity University and TechCode. He holds degrees in engineering and business administration and attended Berlin University of Technology and the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
About Swarm Fund
Swarm Fund is a fully decentralized capital marketplace that democratizes investing by using the power of the blockchain to open up high-return, alternative investment classes to smaller investors through asset-backed funds using cryptocurrency tokens. It makes traditionally exclusive investment opportunities, such as private equity and hedge funds, inclusive for the Swarm by pooling together smaller investments into larger, institutional-sized blocks. Swarm Fund also gives fund managers access to more capital from a new asset class of investors who want to be able to tap into institutional-type investments, but don’t have the high minimums many institutional funds require. Pilot investment vehicles on the Swarm Fund platform include a Distressed Real Estate Fund, a Solar Energy Fund, and a Crypto Hedge Fund. For more information, please visit our website: https://swarm.fund/.
Useful Links:
Swarm Fund: https://swarm.fund/
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/TheSwarmFund
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/swarmalliance/
Whitepaper:
http://bit.ly/2x9mdoq
Blog:
https://swarm.fund/blog/
