TokenMarket prides itself on its clients and eye for good business. Read how we pick out the best startup projects to deliver to our growing community.
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At TokenMarket, our mission is simple: we bring the next generation of groundbreaking Startups to potential investors. Our process ensures we focus on what we know are key attributes a unicorn would have. Over the last three years, we have helped more than 30 cutting edge Startups raise over £240m. We have worked with top tier blockchain projects such as Civic, Storj, and most recently Fetch.AI which sold out $6m of tokens in under 22 seconds.
We have always had a vigorous assessment and due diligence process in assessing companies who wish to come and onboard our platform. We have to ensure that the offerings we bring to investors are set to succeed in the difficult Startup market. Out of the thousands of clients who have approached us, we have accepted less than 1%. This has meant that as we advise and nurture any selected project, we do so with the belief that this is the next unicorn for our investors and loyal community.
Take a look at what it takes to work with TokenMarket and the level of transparency we provide our investors.
The Idea
The core selling point of any tech business is understanding how they expect to disrupt the status quo. For TokenMarket, in this initial stage, we need to confirm viability. The team must have MVPs, own IP, well-attributed team members, and upcoming or current partnerships in place for us to check their market and business proposition.
Over the past three years, we have had some great and some shocking projects approach us. Everything from blockchain based social networks to someone who wanted to build a suit of military-grade armour to sell to the US military, (we know). We need to be able to see a true use case for a product if we are going to offer this opportunity to our investors.
Between our CEO, CTO and Managing Director of the UK, there are a collective 45 years of experience in business and the tech space. We back our vetting process with their professional acumen and eye for what makes a good company.
The Market
Assuming the TokenMarket team see value in the business proposal, the team needs to understand the market and confirm the prospective business pitch.
We use our Director of Research, Jay Pazos, to understand the market the prospective client wishes to disrupt and to confirm the opportunity. Queries that Jay will investigate include; what will the product/service change your industry? How is this going to help the market as a whole? Is there a genuine need for your product/service? What are the market size and opportunity?
It is imperative that we, and our investors, understand what the project believes they can change in their specific industry and if it is achievable.
Our experience in the blockchain space saw us work with clients who had genuine use cases for the technology. In being so selective, we were able to craft a client list which we are proud. These clients utilised blockchain to impact existing market spaces, such as Dovu who have backing from InMotion, the venture arm of Jaguar Land Rover and Creative England, a UK Government-backed VC. We have a proven track record when it comes to clients and we will only work with the best in the space.
The Company Leaders
Of course, a key element for us at TokenMarket is the team the client has already built. To gauge the potential success of the project, we at TokenMarket need to understand, can the team deliver what they promise?
After this question has been answered we will look at three main areas of the team as a whole: founders, developers and legal.
What have the founders previously achieved as well as their experience in the field they are looking to launch a product in? If you have experience in the field of health and are now looking to launch a product for the world of investments, how is your experience relevant? Whilst these might seem like very obvious questions, there is a surprising number who do not have any experience or inroads in their chosen field to disrupt. One can look at companies such as Yahoo!, who had a revolving door of CEOs during the late 2000s, to see what a difference the right leader makes.
Regarding development, we look at what the team building the product or service have delivered already or prior if necessary. Our CTO, who has experience in a wide range of development technologies including, blockchain, smart contract creation and distributed ledger technology, will go through the realistic technical capabilities of the team’s technology. For us, it’s about putting your money where your mouth is.
As one of the final pieces of the team puzzle, we also want to see if you are on the same page as TokenMarket. We want to work with like-minded people who are looking to change their industry for their better.
Legal Support
Having worked with many projects, we know having strong legal representation is crucial to making sure processes are followed correctly for investor protection if a team is looking to raise any form of money.
There can also be a bit of a minefield when working with Security Token Offerings (STOs) and fundraising to remain compliant with the relevant jurisdictional regulations. We need to be certain that all our clients onboard with recognised legal representation in their jurisdiction where they set up before starting proceedings.
Finally, there have been instances in which a potential project has come to us claiming to have done the sufficient required due diligence themselves, we have then identified this not to be the case. If the legal team behind the scenes is not experienced in dealing with these issues from the beginning then we will not place their business on our platform for investors.
Final Thoughts
The reason we can be as selective as we are is because of our experience. We have helped businesses raise over £240m in just under three years. We have built our own technology from the ground up with a team of developers and issued tokens to more than 250,000 wallet addresses in 153 countries. We are in the process of securing licenses from jurisdictions around the world to continue our expansion. Most importantly, however, is that we process all potential projects with an unprecedented level of due diligence, as we hold ourselves to those same standards.
These standards and selectiveness ensure we only work with the best Startups across the globe to put on our platform for our investors. We intend to keep it that way.