LakeDiamond launches an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) to increase its production capacities of lab-grown diamonds for high-tech industrial applications

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LakeDiamond

6 min readOct 22, 2018

LakeDiamond ICO powered by Swissquote; first ICO ever powered by an established banking group

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Monday 22 October 2018 — LakeDiamond, a global leader in the production of lab-grown diamonds for high-tech industrial applications, has today announced the launch of an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) to increase its production capacities. Powered by Swissquote, LakeDiamond’s ICO is the first ever to be powered by an established banking group.

Pascal Gallo, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of LakeDiamond, commented: “We are well positioned to become the leading lab-grown diamonds player by leveraging our expertise, products and know-how to further capture market share in the lab-grown diamonds market, especially as we strengthen our position in micro-mechanics and robotics, and expand into other industrial segments such as photonics, electronics and biotech. Our ICO intends to provide LakeDiamond with the resources needed to accelerate the pace of its development and expand its leadership in lab-grown diamonds”.

LakeDiamond is a Swiss company incorporated in 2015. Building on years of research at EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne), developing reactors capable of growing ultra-pure diamonds, and exploring potential high-tech industrial applications, the company brings together globally renowned and respected professionals with a proven track record in physics, industry, computer science, marketing and finance. LakeDiamond’s Chemical Micro-Wave Chemical Vapor Deposition (MWCVD) reactors grow the highest quality of diamond on earth, suitable for the most demanding applications, thanks to a perfectly controlled and precise technology. The qualities attained are such that they trigger new exciting applications beyond the high-end jewellery market, such as micro-mechanical parts, laser power beaming, high power transistors and high-precision magnetometers.

Michael Ploog Chief Financial Officer of Swissquote, commented: “The launch of the Swissquote ICO offering is a logical step in the development of our blockchain-related services, and complements our cross-asset platform. With its ICO, LakeDiamond, which is developing cutting edge technology combining lab-grown diamonds and high-end industrial applications, is seeking to accelerate its growth.”

Pascal Gallo performing microphotoluminescence for diamond characterization

LakeDiamond main strengths

Lab-grown diamonds: the ultimate material poised to unlock a new technological era

An EPFL spin-off, LakeDiamond produces, transforms and sells lab-grown diamond as the ultimate material for increasingly complex high-value applications in micro-mechanics and robotics, photonics, electronics, and biotech. Lab-grown diamonds have been described as “the new silicon” due to their unique physicochemical properties, i.e. most transparent to light, heat best conductor, eco-friendly, chemically inert, hardest and most elastic material, highest breakdown electric field, and biocompatible.

Ultra-pure lab-grown diamonds: a market with a bright future as industrial uses continue to expand

LakeDiamond potential total serviceable addressable market is expected to reach CHF 18.4bn by 2022 according to the company, as the market for ultra-pure lab-grown diamond products expand from micro-mechanics and robotics (e.g. micro-mechanical parts for watch making), to photonics (e.g. lasers for energy transfer), electronics (e.g. high-power transistors) and biotech (e.g. sensitive magnetometers).

Major milestones in micro-mechanics and robotics as of 2018

LakeDiamond collaborates with EPFL’s prof. Niels Quack on the production of lab-grown diamond-based micro-mechanical parts. The company’s associated technology has recently been highlighted in a Nature article. LakeDiamond already collaborates with a major Swiss watchmaker to incorporate diamond-based micro-mechanical parts in watch mechanisms.

Solid partnerships in place to accelerate go-to-market in photonics, electronics and biotech

LakeDiamond collaborates with EPFL’s prof. Eli Kapon on remotely charging drones and satellites thanks to lab-grown diamonds for energy transfer and a partnership is already in place with a drone manufacturer on this application. The company is also collaborating with EPFL’s prof. Elison Matioli on supercharging high power transistors with lab-grown diamonds to shrink electric car charging stations. Finally, LakeDiamond collaborates with EPFL’s prof. Christophe Galland on diamond-based magnetometers and got an EPFL Innovator project funding this activity.

An ICO to leapfrog from start-up to industrial scale production capacity

The company currently grows diamond in its two Micro-Wave Chemical Vapor Deposition (MWCVD) reactors, with a production capacity of 15,000 plates per year. The objective of LakeDiamond 60 million Swiss francs ICO is to add fifty additional MWCVD reactors to meet the production capacity of 300,000 plates per year by 2020.

The first ICO ever supported and powered by an established banking group

LakeDiamond ICO is powered by Swissquote, an established Swiss banking group listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange. As part of the ICO, Swissquote will provide LakeDiamond with a number of services relating to technology, “know your customer” processes, and payment services. We believe this makes LakeDiamond’s ICO the first ICO ever supported and powered by an established banking group.

An innovative blockchain crowdfunding opportunity to contribute to LakeDiamond industrial production capacity

LKD is LakeDiamond time-based token sold during this ICO, each representing one minute of diamond production. Owners of tokens can use their LKD to produce diamond for their own use or capture production value when the company receives an order from an industrial customer. LakeDiamond token lifecycle is an innovative crowdfunding opportunity using blockchain technology and marks the first time a virtual token buys actual machine time. IMD international business school is currently writing a case study about LakeDiamond ICO.

Relevance and purpose of the ICO

LakeDiamond is building a diamond factory to address high-tech market opportunities. To accomplish its main goals, LakeDiamond requires additional financial resources. But distributing equity would mean losing control of the company. For this reason, LakeDiamond has chosen an ICO as an alternative to traditional equity funding. The opportunity for the participants to the ICO is to capture a part of LakeDiamond’s turnover. The mechanism of the public token sale is blockchain-based, securing all the transactions related to the token purchase, the token sale, and the token use. Digital ledger technologies are relevant for LakeDiamond on three different aspects: collaborative production, traceability for quality, and frictionless payments.

The ICO intends to provide LakeDiamond with the resources it needs to develop, both the company itself and its next generation of products. The company currently grows diamond in its two Micro-Wave

Chemical Vapor Deposition (MWCVD) reactors, with a production capacity of 15,000 plates per year. The objective of LakeDiamond ICO is to acquire fifty additional MWCVD reactors to meet the production capacity of 300,000 plates per year by 2020.