Watch TokenMarket and Lewis Silkin discuss what the future fundraising landscape will look like in a tokenised world with esteemed panellists.
Read more Security Token Event pieces here.
In a recent join collaboration event, TokenMarket and Lewis Silkin discussed another route for both early-stage investors and Startups to use: Security Token Offerings (STOs). Having gained popularity in both the traditional and ICO markets, STOs give investors and businesses the opportunity to tokenise their shares a place them on the blockchain.
For decades equity fundraising had been predominantly controlled by venture capital and specialist business angels. The emergence of equity crowdfunding platforms such as Seedrs and Crowdcube gave the ‘everyday investor’ a chance to find companies they were interested to invest in, rather than being locked into pre-determined assets by their fund managers – if they could afford to access those funds at all.
Ryan Hanley, Managing Director of TokenMarket UK, delivered with an interesting and insightful presentation on how the technology behind a Security Token Offering (STO) could truly benefit the fundraising landscape. Drawing on multiple sources, Hanley’s presentation led the audience through the various issues that IPOs currently face such as lack of liquidity, high listing fees and a lack of 24-hour trading and, more importantly, investors not being the custodian of their assets. Creating a constructive argument for the STO industry, Hanley also highlighted how “tokenization on its own does not bring liquidity to a market” and relied on further development from a number of areas, such as regulation, in order to become a success.
The discussion, which had David Willbe, Partner at Lewis Silkin, Irfon Watkins, Founder and CEO of DOVU, and Townsend Lansing, a securities consultant with almost two decades of experience in the product development area, discuss key areas of the tokenised securities world. The key topics of discussion were focussed on areas such as why traditional markets are so tough to list on, VCs investing billions in early-stage startup companies, would secondary markets ultimately lead to faster liquidity and what are the advantages of investors having full ownership of a digital share.
You can relive the entire event and watch the insightful discussion and presentation via the video below: