INTRODUCTORY QUESTIONS:
HOST: Welcome, guys! Tell us more about yourself and your way you passed to start with Finminity.
GUEST: As a management consultant for 20 years working in PwC, IBM, Cognizant, and Atos and then being a serial entrepreneur and in Blockchain for the last 3 years, into VC and Angel Investing, I have seen both sides as an investor and entrepreneur. This knowledge has given me the belief that I am a problem solver who would like to take away the burden of disadvantaged entrepreneurs. The biggest problem for entrepreneurs is that Funding Gap in the 2nd and 3rd year and the real world VC and Angels only invest if you come from a specific background ( Ivy league. you are young :). We wanted to make venture financing decentralized, democratized, and open to normal investors through new generation de-fi technologies. This belief and passion have made me & Shaik (my co-founder) to build this venture Finminity.
HOST: So, you are co-founders of Finminity? and yes, background really has big weight now and it is hard for small new projects to enter this space.
GUEST: The Crypto Investors has been the real crowd VC for so long, but they have got access to companies which has been a mixed bag. We want to change that.
We believe that Finminity can help a settler from Bangladesh with only brains or a Syrian refugee in the Netherlands asylum or middle-class eastern European tech grad with a great software but no money (better to say underdogs and dreamer) doesn’t die an entrepreneur’s death!
We have built something for them using a mix of Token (ICO/STO), DeFi, Crowdfunding, Compliance, Investor Risk Management — entrepreneurs who are in severe fund crunch after Covid. The entrepreneurs of the world need decentralization, DeFi, democratized venture finance. More so now.
Here is my profile — www.linkedin.com/in/raanngin/
Here is Shaik’s profile www.linkedin.com/in/hamdan/
We should pass all the DYOR checks as founders.
HOST: I like even the fact you’re not anonymous)))
But how decentralization lives with, for example, that you have names in the marketplace?) I think it is more mix of de and decentralization)
GUEST: And also just to let the community know, we have the only license in the Middle East who has token-based crowdfunding under the regulator Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) and now we have Finminity for Europe. Note that as a business we are open to Utility and Security Tokens for the companies who want to raise funds. Just what we have done is that the best practices of Security Token have been taken and put as NFTs as additional tokens for voting, profit sharing for the investors even if they have sold the utility tokens of the company raising funds.
See why centralization was done because as Regulator could check everything — KYC, Fund Raise, Time period, value, Rules of Vesting — Now if that could be coded in Smart Contracts why do you need centralization. But what we need to is to understand the best practices of centralized process (checks and balances) and bring it in the decentralized world. If we have to stop rug pulls
HOST: Yes, I understand) and stopping rug pulls is really very important as they are everywhere. it’s a lot of work. do you have a big team?
GUEST: We have been building this for the last 1.5 years as we wanted to make it live and come to you guys with a ready product rather than saying that we will release and keep delaying it, what we see normally in the crypto world. You promise, take the money and deliver late or don’t deliver at all. This had made us build a team with fixed and floaters to help us with. The floaters are technical contractors and Business School Interns. We have 6 full-time persons and we have around 4–5 more floaters.
As we had been using our own money to build the application, test the markets, we had to do with a small team, build, check, build again..
So our application Finminity. Finance is live with Token Generation Engine on Test Net running.We can handle ERC-20 and ERC-1404
HOST: Great👍 Congrats) thank you for the intro and now are you ready for the questions from our community?)
GUEST: I just wanted to tell what our platform do before that
It’s a long list guys but we have made with our blood and sweat so that I as Investor is not conned by a company and I as a founder can raise money properly and not be on the whims and fancy of VCs
- Companies can pitch to investors and associated pitch deck put in an easy to read manner
- Companies can engage and talk to investors through Discussion module
- Present their company in events that can be scheduled in the platform
- Investors can build or be part of a community to talk in specific topics or companies
- People can Invest through Fiat and Crypto
- Have their Token Agreement (SAFT) signed through Ethereum signature automatically
- See their portfolio
- Investors get interested in their Investment as their funds are kept in client money contracts and given to companies when they achieve roadmap milestones. This is done by smart contracts so that rug pull doesn’t happen, and small investor money is safe, to the extent possible
- Investors can vote for resolutions and get rewards for that.
- Investors can rate companies and get rewards
- P2P community marketplace like crypto local to sell within the platform without paying extra fees
- Token generation event and allocation based on the tokens selected as per the regulatory approval of the companies (be it ERC 20 Utility Tokens or ERC 1404 Security Tokens) and the allocation and discount logic during the sale
And it all live and we will be bringing great companies where crypto founders will make money and have some likeness for them, rather than a token which gave them 200% return. A company has a soul, it’s a living being.
Even if they have flipped the Utility coin, with the NFTs they hold and can sell later
We can move to the next topic. Thanks for accomodating us with these points.
HOST: Wow, so many features)
Amazing job, guys👍
This is a very large functionality.
Your users are very lucky!
Great comparison! Sole of the company! You really love your job !!!!
We can proceed! 🚀👍
COMMUNITY QUESTIONS:
QUESTION: Talking about yourself, you use the concept of Hybrid Finance (HyFi). As I understand it, this is a synthesis of decentralized finance and centralized. Tell us what you took for your project from these two market segments?
ANSWER: Tough question and good you have read my Medium Article. Think it in this way
- Finminity helps a company which has a proper use case driven utility token
- Finmiity helps a company which has created a security token by pledging its assets
For both the usage was driven by FMT Tokens as fees, for voting, for staking, etc.
Now the company A being in the crypto world (and assuming its a good due diligence driven chosen company with KYB) its tokens remains in Crypto world and people swap it with use cases and get appreciation. The more crypto market becomes better, the more these tones appreciate.
Company B’s tokens are share driven and it is bought and sold through Security Token Exchanges and Market Place.
Now the Environments A and Environment B don’t become good at the same time. When the world goes into an economic downturn, environment B becomes bad and environment A works well.
As we have FMT tokens and business catering to both environments A & B, we get benefits and hedge our risks as a company and our tokens.
That’s why we are HyFi. It’s like a hovercraft.
QUESTION: It makes sense, btw your FMT token is security asset?) Which role does it play in your project?
ANSWER: Nope FMT is Utility Token. The Platform runs on Utility Token but can cater to both the business needs.
We have a clear Tokenization use case within the platform otherwise the token value will depreciate. So these are the following use cases of FMT Tokens –
A.COMPANIES WHO ARE RAISING FUNDS will pay their fees through FMT Token for
*Onboarding to the Platform
*Token creation & associated smart contract configuration
*Dividend Distribution
*Putting Investor Resolution to Vote
- INVESTORS WHO have TOKENS
* Gets early access to token offerings of the Platform
* Can do voting in the resolutions and earn more tokens given by the company for their work
* Receive Interest + Dividends
- 3rd PARTIES and Ecosystem Partners
* Use FMT Tokens to create alternative products like Funds out of tokens
* In the P2P marketplace within Finminity, where these Tokens are traded, the commission or transaction fees can be paid by Finminity tokens.
QUESTION: Wasn’t you afraid to launch it in such an economic situation? As I understand you had two sales — FMT (your own token) and one more on your platform (currently running)?
ANSWER: No, we believed our platform has clear differentiation. And we will get investors. And when the world is going through turmoil, the crypto market works well.
Yes, we have just closed our Finforce — Early Supporter Round and now starting on to Finstars — Round 1 through In App Offering form 16th October. We have only 300 members’ slot.
QUESTION: So, we can still be early birds and get your tokens) One more question — will KYC be required?
ANSWER: FINFORCE we have closed. We are starting In-App Offering of Finstars from 16th. Let our supporters while contributing know how good the software is and whether they will keep on using it to support the next inline companies
KYC is required because once you do it, for all the next companies that come over, you dont have to go with that whole hog again.
Very Important for the community to know:
Investors in this round get lifetime access to all future companies raising funds through Tokens in Finminity at a 7.5% discount. There is a Club Membership NFT token which is given to identify you even if you have sold all your FMT Tokens and made gains.
So the next Decentralized Robot Mining & Services company (sample) that comes over, if the price is 10, a 7.5% discount is applied on top of the offer that is going on at a particular round. And this is for all companies after. This is how we look after a community that supported us at first. In the real world capital markets and investment banking, this is quite prevalent.
So the soul and our love remain with the NFT’s. Maybe you have got the benefits as you have the company utility tokens already sold of in Uniswap but you still love our company and we love you back.
QUESTION: Can this NFTs be sold?)
ANSWER: Yes These NFTs can be sold, if you want to sell some part of your club members who will get benefits of this discounts, voting, client money account interest (as all money are not given to the comment at one go — they get it as per their milestone achievemnet, aka LID Protocol). So, it’s like almost like a shareholding but not getting to the messy regulatory aspects. Yes pls, 2nd question.
QUESTION: How do you decide if an applicant is a Startup or SME? Is it just a targeting expression or are there any criteria for being accepted? What if the applicant is a big company?
ANSWER: There are different definition — I have it very simple for my platform — Startups are making revenue but burning and not profitable.
SME’s are profitable — whatever small it may be. So, we are targeting a mix of both so that we can give our FMT NFT Token holders access to different companies. Note that these companies will go through a Know Your Business and our standard due diligence checks.
Not bad company can rug pull and run — they may fail but they will fail to try.
It’s no shame if you die in the battlefield. Its a shame if you run.
QUESTION: what your KYC includes? Do you check only personal information or also audit smart contracts, check tech, etc?
ANSWER: The KYC will include a KYC of the founders, any bad name about the company, company incorporation verification, smart contract audit and high-level check of the technology they are working in.
QUESTION: Your company makes a smart contract audit or you use the third part?
ANSWER: As I am from the Investment banking and Tech World, Crypto investors will be able to see some really strong companies with a tokenized model of raising funds.
We use 3rd party and our preferred partner is Hacken
QUESTION: Wow, great) you already partnered with them?)
ANSWER: But they can use Certiq. We will check their smart contracts one level though so that DAOFI thing doesn’t happen
No, we are talking to them, as of now we have Microsoft Azure, Alibaba as our Cloud and DB partners for tech, and we are in Ethereum. We have a partnership with Matic and we will use their sidechain to solve the cost and network congestion of ethereum mainnet
QUESTION: How you will use this sidechain? Can you explain it?
ANSWER: We may use Etherum Oracle for our P2P marketplace
We have a number of smart contracts that are used but the most important them are the following
- Voting by the investor community for Resolutions, Decisions, Path Finding
- Milestone Payment Voting — The Money form investors are held in smart contract in stable coin and given to investors only when their resolution is voted as approved by investors. If investors don’t vote companies in our side chain vote as validators.
- If a company fails a number of times in resolution, the money held in Client Money Smart Contract is returned back to investors.
All these need gas and that’s why we need a sidechain. As of now, we have done that in our own sidechain/hashes but Matic would be better abd faster.
QUESTION: How can Finminity boost my project? Do you have different consulting services for entrepreneurs? Or do you just create the tokens you need? Can you be adjusted to the needs of each person?
ANSWER: We will help the company to tokenize its business model, help them in the pitch as we have a template in the app and then most importantly, we open them to our investor community and our advisors. Tokens can be created by us or others, but the handholding is important. And then finally getting to do the Investor services and investor engagement through voting, profit shares, resolutions
QUESTION: The amount you have invested is not given to the company rightaway. It is kept in the Escrow by Custodian and you get Interest on that amount. Why is there a need of escrow? Can you explain the process of earning by investing in Finminity?
ANSWER: Say company X has asked for funds and they have said that they will take it in 2 milestone payments. So the fund investor has given stays in a smart contract and released based on milestone. Till the amount is not paid, the amount can generate interest for the investor.
Normally the first milestone is the closure of sale and one can be a product release
the amount is held is in a stable coin, so a stable coin generating the interest available in lending options
QUESTION: Among the partners, I saw Microsoft, AliBaba, ZOHO. How long has your platform been operating and in what area are you partners with them and why is FMT coming out just now?
ANSWER: Microsoft we are using for last 8 months when we started developing the application. Then we had Alibaba for DB options. Zoho for CRM, Chat, Service Desk and Campaigns we started only 1 month back. FMT is coming out because the application was built, tested and made ready and many of the use cases were checked and improved by talking to investment bankers and financial experts
QUESTION: How many jurisdictions are you covering at the moment and should a project be registered already to collaborate with you, or you can handle this part as well?
In other words, Is it enough to have a good idea, a team and capital to benefit from your services or the company should already be registered?
ANSWER: We have Finminity in Europe and YourVC.Club in Dubai. So companies from the Middle East and Europe can come into our platform.
As of now, we can do Utility Tokens for all companies, but Security Tokens for companies coming only from the Middle East. We have applied for Security Token License in the EU and we should get it by December.
So that we can do both Utility and Security token offerings in Europe.
QUESTION: Did you think about USA market?) I know, it’s very hard to get there
ANSWER: SEC rules are not different from the FCA (UK) and DFSA (Dubai) rules. you need the money and a large team to operate in multiple geos. we will do it later once we get hold of the EU. As I have stayed and worked in the EU, I prefer to do business in that zone.
QUESTION: Security token regulations are much higher than utility tokens. Do they have the necessary permissions to operate Finminity? Do you plan to expand these certificates in different countries?
ANSWER: Yes, we have a license as in the below as authorized company for doing security tokens in Middle East https://www.difc.ae/public-register/yvc-mea-ltd/
We will have a similar license for pan EU so that we have larger geo to play- more so to find better companies.
As we have received approval from DFSA (Dubai) which is similar to FCA (UK) we are compliant with most of the regulatory compliances.
QUESTION: How do I get involved in community voting? The more FMT token the more I can vote?
ANSWER: Your vote weightage is counted based on your FMT NFT Tokens you are holding now.
QUESTION: What is IBDEX?
ANSWER: A Decentralized Investment Bank
QUESTION: Does Finminity have a selection system for emerging entrepreneurs to support them? Do they have to meet some requirements or market some specific products?
ANSWER: We will be evaluating the growth potential and innovation. Accordingly, we will be onboarding.
QUESTION: how I can Earn through Finminity DAO based milestone voting? is there any minimum amount of token I need to hold to be part of governance?
ANSWER: It’s based on the no of tokens you are holding/ total no of FMT tokens held by all.
QUESTION: Does everyone who wants to use Finminity need to go through the KYC? Can you work with people anonymously?
ANSWER: Unfortunately, No. We follow the strict guidelines of the regulators, we cannot work with those who are anonymous.
QUESTION: How to verify or know FMT is a legal or safe project??? Have you any proof?
ANSWER: 1. We will share the smart contract audit
2. You can check the license we showed you from Public Register. See Type of License — Regulated. This our MEA crowdfunding license.
QUESTION: Why did you create this token? Is there a special reason behind naming this token?
ANSWER: Finance for Community — with Infinite possibilities
QUESTION: If I want to invest in a Finminity project, what would be the risk? Would it be at my own risk or does Finminity offer a system to protect investors’ assets?
ANSWER: Taking Care of Investor Risk & Rug Pull by Companies through smart contract-driven milestone-based payment release. Plus a due dlilgence of the companies coming to the platform.
QUESTION: Really why Finminity gives the alternative of developing an ERC 1404 token? why not just give him the ERC 20 option? they are of the same chain.
ANSWER: It’s on the same chain — just that they have a different structure where ERC-1404 can have security kind of functionalities whereas ERC-20 doesn’t have them and needs to be added
