Mt Pelerin, a Swiss startup with the ambition to become the first blockchain bank in the world, has successfully closed its first stage of funding with 5% of its tokenized equity sold to the crowd. With this historical accomplishment, Mt Pelerin has shown the existence of a real interest from the public for private equity investment.
A New Kind of Fund Raising
On 16 October 2018, Mt Pelerin Group SA was incorporating 100% of its share-equity on the blockchain in the form of tokens, a token being fully equivalent to a share. This historical achievement drew the attention of experts as it was the first time the shares of a company were incorporated into a token and made indissociable from it. Token holders could now be recognized as shareholders by Swiss law and not by contractual agreement.
With this new tool, Mt Pelerin has been able to sell without any intermediary the 500,000 shares that were offered directly to the public and successfully closed its first funding round.
A Strong Participation from Small Investors
Unlike traditional ICOs targeting crypto enthusiasts and investment professionals, Mt Pelerin succeeded in seducing a large crowd of small investors from Switzerland and around the world.
570 investors coming from about thirty different countries have bought tokenized shares from the company with a median investment of USD 1,065. In addition to the amazing diversity of the profile of these investors, Mt Pelerin has also noted a cross-generational enthusiasm with ages ranging from 20 to 84 years old. Among those small investors, many were investing for the very first time in equity after having read about Mt Pelerin’s equity offering in the press. The simple contribution process and the low minimum investment amount (USD 250) played a key role in encouraging participation.
For Mt Pelerin, this experience – from the possibility to create tokenized shares to the general public’s mobilization – is the empirical demonstration of the interest for an easier access to investment and financial instruments that the blockchain and tokenization make possible. This assumption is at the core of the new bank that Mt Pelerin is building, one that will give individuals and businesses an unprecedented choice and flexibility in the way they invest and finance themselves.
Mt Pelerin ambitions to obtain a banking license in Switzerland by the end of 2019 and begin its operations in early 2020.