Current — Record Growth, Product & Mode Update, $CRNC Token, Algorand Chain Migration, & More
TL;DR — Key Announcements
- Q1 2021 Revenues closed 2,000% over Q1 2020.
- Q1 was our largest quarter to date with over $3.7M in revenue.
- Going into Q2, we surpassed all the revenue we did in 2020 in the first 4 months of 2021.
- The team at Current Mobile has increased its headcount to 50+, on target to reach 80+ by EOY! As of May 2021, we had six great new senior leaders join the team — Chief People Officer; VP of Finance; VP of Marketing, Current Rewards; VP of Sales, Mode Phone; Director of Product; Director of E-commerce roles.
- Daily Active Users are up 10x since Q1 2020. The Current Rewards Super App is now 500,000+ Daily Active Users.
- The Current Rewards App remains at a rating of 4.5 and #1 app overall in our category within the Google Play Store as well as in the Top 50–100 of all apps in the USA. We recently surpassed 1,450,000 reviews!
- $1.7M rewards given out in 2021 so far surpass what was given out in the entire 2020 ($1.1M).
- Mode’s first-ever hardware as a subscription service, launched in February 2021, has proved to be quite popular. With already 3,000 devices sold to date, we have increased our order size with our manufacturer to maintain scale throughout the mid-year months.
- Current finalized a 7-figure partnership with Algorand to migrate the $CRNC Token to the Algorand Blockchain in an effort to dramatically decrease the cost of transactions as well as further support the future scalability of the $CRNC Token and the underlying ecosystem.
- After hitting the milestone of 10M+ earners in mid-February 2021, Current Mobile has now surpassed a huge milestone of 16M+ earners.
- Our earners are underserved and looking for new relevant capital solutions. As we continue to broaden our financial service offerings globally, we have already reached $100K+/month revenue from financial services since the Q1’21 launch.
From under a million earners in early 2020, we hit a milestone of 10M+ earners in mid-Feb 2021. Since then, we now have 16M+ earners. Many variables have factored into the continuation of exponential growth in 2021 relative to the previous year. Looking back, throughout the COVID pandemic, we experienced a surge of usage and engagement while people around the world were spending higher than average amounts of time on their mobile devices due to quarantines. This dynamic was further fueled by a high percentage of these people facing hardships and looking for alternatives to earn extra income. The effects of the pandemic surely played their part, but tangentially, our product offerings became stronger, our growth strategies became more efficient, and the message began to resonate. Today, with life starting to return to normal around the globe, user retention and engagement continue on an upward trend and several of the features we integrated including location-based earning and shopping rewards will continue to grow as people begin to venture outside of their homes. With Mode phones, the daily revenue per user is trending to twice as much as that of a non-Mode Current App user, and the retention is phenomenally high; the initial data indicating that the LTV of a Mode user being an order of magnitude higher. We now understand our earners even better — our earners are underserved and looking for new relevant capital solutions. As we continue to build & broaden our financial service offerings globally, we have already reached $100K+/month revenue from affiliate-driven financial services since the Q1’21 launch. As we emerge from the pandemic, our product and the incredible team behind it are stronger than ever.
Now, without further ado, let’s see how the Current has grown recently!
Product Improvements & Updates
New “FTUE” (First Time User Experience)
There’s a ton of similar apps out there with various degrees of respectability. We’re setting ourselves apart from the pack by developing an FTUE that helps new users cash out their earnings quicker — many times during their first session! We believe this will help gain trust with new users.
Music Earning Rate & Superboost Feature
The Super Boost feature is an extension of the Music Earning Rate (Internally referred to as MER) feature previously introduced late last year. Super Boost allows users to temporarily increase their earnings by 1 point per min for an hour by engaging with a variety of high-value tasks across the platform. As a result of its introduction, we’ve seen a large percentage of users engage with the feature as well as higher average daily revenue per user for those that do. We’re currently working to expand the diversity of features and tasks that users can take advantage of to increase their earning rate multiple times per day.
The Stories Feature
This is a feature that’s currently being run as a pilot to a small percentage of users. Stories are a similar short story format as seen across multiple social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. The format is monetizable by the publisher and taps into a network of hundreds of thousands of publishers including a variety of influencers, content creators, and branded pages. Users that engage with stories can earn up to 20,000 points per day.
The Lock Screen Gets a New Look and Experience
Back in early March, we started to roll out a better lock screen experience for users on Android 8 & 9, as well as Android 10 & 11. We’re seeing improved engagement and retention for cohorts who got the new lock screen treatment.
The big quality of life improvements made was:
- Current branding
- Cleaner design
- New ad units
- Icons that are easier to see
- Increased button size
The best part is the improved gestures! Originally, users had to swipe up to open the Current app and swipe right to unlock their phone. However, Android standards on version 10+ are different and this was confusing users. Users now swipe up to unlock their phone and swipe right to open our app.
Location-based earning opportunities
Two new ways to earn points have been added for users to earn additional passive income from their everyday activities. As they go out and about, users will be able to earn from unique experiences based on where they are in the world. These opportunities unlock after a user grants the app permission to access location information:
- Surveys targeted to specific locations
- Location-based ads and shopping check-ins
Both options use the device’s location to show an ad or survey. If the user completes the survey or views the ad, they earn points. It’s easy for users and provides a unique experience that shows promotions in their immediate vicinity.
Users receive a notification after earning points for completing a location-based action.
A multitude of optimizations and bug fixes
In addition to big features, the team is always working on making smaller tweaks that will improve the user experience and increase retention, recurrence, and revenue. We encourage everyone here to help make the Current app the best it can be. Many of the above updates came from direct feedback from users. Using the app is a good way to keep track of all the work the team is putting into making a daily-use app for budget-conscious consumers around the world. Please download the Android app and let us know what you think. It’s easy. From the Settings menu (It looks like a gear.), click “Report a Bug” or “Feature Request” to contribute.
For the remainder of the year, we intend to spread the focus across creating new opportunities for the user to earn, lessening the reliance on ad-based revenues, increasing the diversity of redemption options, including the capacity to redeem for a variety of cryptocurrencies, improving the redemption experience, as well as making improvements to our internal tools.
Mode Phone
With just over 3,000 devices sold, most of which were sold in late Q1 & Q2, interest in the Mode phone has begun to take-off faster than anticipated. Inventory remains for the remainder of Q2 2021, with a new batch of devices already in order to help support the anticipated scale in Q3. Most of the increase in sales since February can be attributed to the launch of the subscription service and testing between monthly payments and a slightly lower monthly payment but billed quarterly model which is live today.
Key highlights:
- Brought on new team members to expand in retail markets, carriers, OEMs, and online sales.
- Improvements to the new customer experience.
- Two purchase options to get a device. Subscription or Direct to Consumer purchase. Due to the low barrier of entry, the vast majority of devices sold are through subscriptions.
- LTV, earning, and usage continues to be much higher relative to the Current Rewards platform
- Ramping up a referral program
- Partnered with a marketing agency to aid scaling efforts
- Laying the groundwork for the digital Mode Rewards Card
We are nearing the completion of optimizations and setting up the teams to start to really scale to meet the goals set out for MODE.
Mode Rewards Card Sneak Peak
In an effort to broaden financial services for our global customers who may be underserved and looking for new, relevant capital solutions, Mode will be expanding its product offer. Coming late Summer 2021, Mode has been laying the groundwork for the “Money Card,” a prepaid debit card supported by MasterCard! Once Mode customers claim their cards, they can convert their points earned from activities while using the device and can spend it like cash! Full details to be announced ahead of launch.
The $CRNC Token
Current partners with Algorand to migrate blockchains
Over the last few months, as the $CRNC Token begun to change hands p2p, the cost of the transactions became outrageously expensive. Due to the complexity of a security token smart contract, the average cost of transaction over Ethereum was as high as 20–25x the cost of a normal Ethereum transaction. After receiving much feedback from holders, in combination with the fact that the $CRNC Token has always been intended to be as freely tradable as possible, and serve as the backbone of future products — a solution was needed.
After months of careful consideration, and evaluating options, Algorand surfaced as the prime candidate. Founded in 2017 by Silvio Micali; an accomplished luminary in the fields of computer science, cryptography, and mathematics, and is the recipient of the Turing Award. Additionally, Silvio is the co-inventor of probabilistic encryption, Zero-Knowledge Proofs, Verifiable Random Functions, and many of the protocols that are the foundations of modern cryptography. Algorand delivers high speed, security, and decentralization as the cornerstones of the world’s first open-source, permissionless, pure proof-of-stake blockchain protocol for the next generation of financial products. Transactions cost pennies or fractions of pennies, as opposed to $10’s or $100’s of dollars in our case, and are settled within seconds.
We’re extremely excited to work with Algorand through this partnership. With their support, we intend to explore the creation of multiple products within the Current Rewards ecosystem.
Blockchain migration planning and timeline
Over the last few weeks, Current has been coordinating with Securitize to prepare for the migration over to the Algorand blockchain. The process in itself is not particularly complex, however, there is work that remains. We plan to have the full scope and development timeline from Securitize next week, which will be reviewed and communicated in the coming weeks.
The process will require each registrant to update their Securitize iD with new, Algorand compatible wallets for which instructions will be provided. All holders will be notified when the $CRNC Token contract will be paused. When the contract is paused, a snapshot of the blockchain will be created, and everyone will receive book entries for the number of tokens held when the snapshot was taken. The number of tokens will be displayed in your account, and once the Algorand instance of the contract has been minted, the old $CRNC token contract will be destroyed, and holders will be able to claim their tokens on a rolling basis.
Investor bonuses issuance, dividends, & bounty participant issuance
Once the migration has been completed, the investor bonuses and bounty participant issuances will follow shortly thereafter. The initial investors of the $CRNC Token have started to accumulate their monthly bonuses starting in February 2021 and will continue to, until the migration has been completed.
With the chain migration on the horizon, it has been decided that Q1 2021 dividend royalty will be held and distributed along with Q2 2021 dividends. Once issued to holders, these payments will be claimable in USD via ACH Transfer or ETH. It’s important to note that in order to be eligible for the dividend royalty, you must have completed the required tax documentation (if applicable) and has made your election for your preferred method of payment.
Following the issuance of the dividend, those that had previously participated in Current’s Bounty Program were previously approved by CoinList and have a registered Securitize iD before the date of issuance, will receive their allocations.
Securitize Markets listing & other updates
The $CRNC Token is planned to be listed on Securitize Markets. Current’s registered investor count has nearly doubled since mid-February to a total of over 15,000, vastly outpacing expectations. As of now, the Securitize Market’s exchange is in production testing and all issuers are currently going through a final due diligence process. The platform has received approval from the SEC but is still awaiting final approval from FINCEN. Both regulatory bodies’ approval is required ahead of launch, however, based on their expected timelines, they expect to be able to launch the exchange sometime by the end of June.
As things gear up with the exchange launch, the Securitize technology platform most recently enabled a Reg A offering for Exodus. Exodus, a company that allows its users to secure, manage and exchange crypto assets in a single wallet, raised $75M in funding. Securitize provided two key services — KYC and are serving as their transfer agent. The offering drew over 100,000 new investors to their platform and has surpassed 200,000 in total across the board.
Additionally, just yesterday, Securitize announced a partnership with Genesis Trading and Anchorage, which operate lending desks that regularly lend and borrow cryptocurrencies to launch two new crypto security yield funds. One is based on bitcoin (BTC) and the other denominated in the stablecoin USDC. Securitize Capital, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Securitize, will manage both funds. The funds will be open for participation in early June and will be issued as digital asset securities on the Algorand blockchain. Learn more here.
In other exciting news, Current has recently engaged outside counsel in a continued effort to more deeply integrate the $CRNC Token as a core component of our products. This same firm worked with each of Blockstack, YouNow, and Props on each of their respective paths to decentralization and has the experience and insight to help us explore regulatory compliant paths to unlock greater value for the token. We will be sharing a full product roadmap and further updates later this summer.
How to Get Involved
- Chat with us on Twitter!
- Add Questions here for an upcoming Q&A.
- We’re hiring! Have someone in mind that you think is a perfect fit for one of our open positions? Send them a link to our job board. As a reminder, we pay a referral fee for any employee we hire!
If you ever need to reach out to our investor relations, or leadership team, please feel free to email info@current.us, and we assure you that we will respond in a timely fashion. Please keep an eye on our Telegram Announcement channel or Medium for all future updates. If you’d like to ask a question specifically for an upcoming Q&A, drop a question in our Google Form.
[PLEASE READ] Important legal disclaimer: No money or other consideration is being solicited by this communique, and if sent in response, will not be accepted. Our discussion may contain forward-looking statements that are based on our beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by the following words: “may,” “will,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” “anticipate,” “is designed to,” “believe,” “estimate,” “predict,” “project,” “potential,” “continue,” “ongoing,” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words.
These statements involve risks, uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors that may cause actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from the information expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each such forward-looking statement, we caution you that these statements are based on a combination of facts and factors currently known by us and our projections of the future, about which we cannot be certain. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about: developing and designing the Current network, including the $CRNC token and its future utility; the anticipated development and growth of the Current Network; maintaining and expanding our base of users; our anticipated growth and growth strategies and our ability to effectively manage that growth and effect these strategies; our expectations regarding regulatory developments and their effect on the Current Network, including the ability of applications on our network to develop a user base and a successful business model; and potential future listings on an exchange or ATS. We cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate. Furthermore, if the forward-looking statements prove to be inaccurate, the inaccuracy may be material. In light of the significant uncertainties in these forward-looking statements, you should not regard these statements as a representation or warranty by us or any other person that we will achieve our objectives and plans in any specified time frame, or at all. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements publicly, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.
