Jibrel: January Update
Jibrel continues to build out its alternative investing marketplace, and — as explored in this month’s deep dive—currently features tokenized equity offerings for six different startups with a wide variety of value propositions. Additionally, updates were made to the iOS and Android versions of the Jibrel Wallet.
Overall Project Status
Throughout this month, the company has conducted a gradual soft-launch (unannounced) of the Jibrel alternative investing marketplace MVP. Meanwhile, our crypto products, infrastructural components, and digital asset projects are all largely on track.
Tech:
- Jibrel Platform: The tech team has been gradually releasing upgrades of the Jibrel MVP over the course of the last month, in order to conduct a stress-test on the systems prior to a larger user acquisition push. In addition to tokenized equity offerings for 6 different startups, the current version of the Jibrel alternative investing marketplace (0.3) allows for startup applications and investor registration / KYC.
- Jibrel Wallet: Android 3.4.6 and iOS 3.0.1 versions of the Jibrel Wallet (JWallet) have recently been released. The Android version features the Jibrel Ethereum Blockchain Explorer (JSearch / ETHBE), as well as bug fixes, a redesign, and Portuguese localization. The iOS version now has almost full JTicker and JAssets integrations, bringing it another step closer to parity with our flagship Android version.
- Backend: The backend team has mostly been supporting the Jibrel alternative investing marketplace and the Jibrel Wallet. For this month, the backend team’s work on Jibrel’s Ethereum Block Explorer is especially noteworthy, not only for the present state of the Jibrel Wallet, but also for the future state of Jibrel’s alternative investing marketplace. Previously, the Jibrel Wallet fetched blockchain updates directly from the Ethereum node. Now it fetches this data from Jibrel’s Ethereum Block Explorer). In the old version of the wallet, wallet end-users could see small delays while the app was fetching data — history of transactions, current balances, etc. Further, with the new integration, the wallet now processes blockchain forks properly. If your transaction were to occur in a block that later became a fork, with the updated Jibrel Wallet you will now see the issue immediately. In addition, post-integration, the wallet has to do less work and as a result is much lighter. The code is simpler, shorter, and cleaner. This ultimately results in positive effects such as faster development of blockchain-related features, as well as less room for bugs and errors. This simplicity is important for mobile apps, but it’s even more crucial for web apps. The environment that web browsers provide to web apps is a much more limited one than iOS/Android apps have. This has historically lead to trouble with the development of Jwallet Web, which resulted in delayed delivery time and reduced overall quality. However, with the Block Explorer API, it’s now possible to develop web apps more quickly and efficiently. This improved efficiency potential is extremely important for our future web apps and features — particularly for those that we will launch soon on Jibrel’s alternative investing marketplace.
Marketing:
- Jibrel Platform: In terms of Jibrel’s equity tokenization platform, this past month the team has primarily been preparing owned media (video, creative, copy, prints, branding, social media, press kits, emails, and related). As the Jibrel platform develops further, the marketing team additionally plans to build up its focus on other tactics such as events and performance advertising.
- Blog: In January, we released Chinese and Korean versions of the Jibrel blog. The goal of the blog is to drive increased awareness of blockchain and cryptocurrencies in these key markets, while simultaneously increasing awareness of Jibrel and its offerings. Relatedly, we also revamped the interlinking process for the English blog, which should ultimately lead to a more steady increase in organic site traffic over time.
- Past Events:
TechWadi: Jibrel was proud to be a sponsor at TechWadi on February 6th in San Francisco, USA. Stay tuned for footage. The team represented the Jibrel equity tokenization platform to a wide range of investors and startups with ties to Silicon Valley and the Middle East. Meanwhile, CEO Yazan Barghuthi spoke about utilizing blockchain and crypto to reimagine how companies are built, funded, and managed. We hope to release footage of the presentation soon.
Blockchain for Everyone: Jibrel’s Operations Associate, Ala Haddad, gave a talk titled “Blockchain for Everyone” at the Princess Sumaya University for Technology in Amman, Jordan. In this educational talk, Ala explained the value of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, gave a demo of the Jibrel Wallet, and helped attendees create their own wallets.
- Upcoming Events:
DealMakers 2020: Sewar Nowwar (Business Development Manager) and Ala Haddad (Operations Associate) will be attending Endeavor’s DealMakers 2020 conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 9th.
STEP 2020 Dubai: Taking place February 11–12 in Dubai, STEP 2020 Dubai is one of the most important startup and SME events in the region. COO Talal Tabbaa, Business Development Manager Sewar Nowwar, and Operations Associate Ala Haddad all plan to be in attendance.
MBRIF Welcome Event: This event will take place on February 25th in Dubai, UAE. As members of the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund Accelerator, Jibrel will be given a unique chance to showcase our business to UAE ministers, local and global innovation leaders, and MBRIF’s strategic partners. Talal, Sewar, and Ala will attend.
Business Development:
- Overview: The pilot program with the Central Bank of Jordan is ongoing, as is Jibrel’s participation in the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) RegLab and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF) Accelerator — along with various other partnerships. That said, the major news from bizdev this month is around the 6 startups currently approved (be sure to check out the Deep Dive section below for more info on these), as well as the resulting investor fundraising for those startups.
- Startup Applications (Jibrel Platform): The business development team has been hard at work vetting and approving startup applications and securing investor funds for the respective equity offerings. In particular, the team has concentrated primarily on startup applications this month as a key focus area. We have been actively building our pipeline and screening applications. Main acquisition channels are: email campaigns, our own network, and industry referrals. The application form (a.k.a. Fundraising Suitability Assessment) was sent to every startup that signed up for early access (a total of 1,350 startups). From there, we received applications, screened them, and either passed, failed, or requested further information from the startups in question. Whereas the initial process relied on email, startups can now apply online. Further, this process will become more automated in upcoming releases.
Startups can now apply for funding online to raise funding through the platform directly.
Investors can now complete KYC application online to invest in high-growth startups.
Achievements, Challenges & Limitations
Jibrel wants to hear your constructive feedback
As mentioned in the End of Year Update, currently one of our main challenges and limitations is in generating additional JNT use cases that are not only value-driving but also fully compliant with current regulations. We are aware of this, and are routinely testing the waters on different approaches that might be feasible from a technical, regulatory, and financial perspective. That said, we would also like to give the community a chance to voice their collective opinion as one more factor to add into the mix of our overall deliberation.
With that in mind, we are currently collecting survey responses so that we can more accurately bear the current demographics and priorities of today’s JNT community in mind as we work on potential solutions for JNT. For example, we are looking to obtain insights into secondary market activity behavior patters and understand what other tokens the community finds interesting. In other words, this survey will allow the team to better understand the demographics of JNT holders — as well as their wishes and intentions—in order understand how the company can best add value given the status quo. All survey responses will be anonymized and will be used solely for the purposes described above.
Here are the links to the surveys in English, Korean, and Chinese:
At time of writing, we currently have 87 responses: 19 in English, 24 in Korean, and 44 in Chinese. We plan to wait and give everyone a fair chance to send in their responses even if they missed the initial announcement. In any event, we plan to publish an overview of the results along with the next monthly update (March 6th).
Human Resources
Yet again, Jibrel has no new hires this month. To reiterate the theme of the past few updates, the current focus is on developing existing talent, optimizing budgets, and increasing overall operational efficiency.
Monthly Deep-Dive
A Closer Look at the Jibrel Marketplace’s Startups
The Jibrel alternative investing marketplace holds a current roster of six startups, spanning a wide variety of verticals: insurtech, real estate, artificial intelligence (A.I.), language processing, recruitment, and telecommunications. Four are raising for a series A round, and two are raising for a seed round. These current startups hail from the MENA region, but many have a global customer acquisition focus. Since Jibrel’s regulatory setup is structured to allow startups and investors from around the world, over time we ultimately plan to onboard a range of startups from other countries and regions.
To become startup #7, apply today at jibrel.com/en/raise. To get on the list to invest in one of our startups, sign up and complete KYC at jibrel.com/en/invest. We will continue to release more info on new startups added to the platform, information on closed rounds, and other developments.
Arabot
Founded in 2016, Arabot specializes in providing end-to-end solutions that focus on building an authentic conversational experience between bots and humans. It helps businesses communicate and engage with customers in an efficient, effective, and intelligent manner across a wide range of web, app, and social media platforms. Arabot does this through cutting edge AI-driven conversational products, which are powered by Machine Learning (ML), Deep Learning (DL), and Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies.
Maqsam
Maqsam provides the most cost-effective cloud telephony solution for SMEs and remote teams across the MENA region. With regional rates and guaranteed reliability, Maqsam allows its users to auto-expand their communication using the web as their telephony gateway with just a simple browser. Maqsam founders have a proven track record of developing, launching, and scaling digital businesses in the Middle East.
Addenda
Addenda is a B2B insurtech company that seeks to disrupt the insurance industry. The startup uses distributed ledger technology (DLT) to streamline processes between insurance companies through real-time immutable reporting. This allows insurers to report claims and policy changes in a completely verifiable and encrypted manner. Addenda provides a blockchain-powered motor recovery platform where insurers can reconcile outstanding motor insurance payments between each other at a fraction of the cost and time it takes today.
Smart Crowd
Smart Crowd’s mission is to enable everyday individuals and families to grow their wealth by providing them with opportunities to invest in income generating assets. It is the MENA region’s first regulated digital platform for real estate investments through crowdfunding. By allowing investors to buy a share of an income-generating property from as little as AED 5,000 (approximately USD 1,300), the platform makes real estate investing accessible and affordable for all. Using Smart Crowd, individuals and families can grow their wealth incrementally through easy online access to pre-vetted fractional real estate assets whilst lowering the risks.
Kader
Kader is addressing MENA’s USD 6.3 billion HR and recruitment services market. Founded in Amman, Jordan, Kader is a mobile-based marketplace that connects job seekers with businesses in the service sector at a click of a button. By leveraging location-based job matching, the platform reduces information gaps, thereby, facilitating job placements in as little as one day. The company currently operates in Jordan and Saudi Arabia and is eyeing expansion into other emerging markets.
Mind Rockets
Founded in 2006, Mind Rockets features an all-star team, with multi-award-winning technology delivering a sustainable business model to a deep client list. The company develops assistive technological solutions for the deaf & hard of hearing worldwide. Avatars deliver instant translation from text & speech to sign language to foster the engagement and independence of the deaf community.
Conclusion
Key Takeaways
- The Jibrel platform is on track from, both, a tech and a business standpoint, with 3 MVP iterations, 6 startups fully onboarded, and investments well underway.
- Jibrel Wallet Android 3.4.6 features the Jibrel Blockchain Explorer, and Jibrel Wallet iOS 3.0.1 now has almost full JTicker and JAssets integrations, bringing it another step closer to parity with our flagship Android version.
- The backend team’s work on Jibrel’s Block Explorer is particularly noteworthy, not only for the present state of the Jibrel Wallet, but also for the future state of Jibrel’s alternative investing marketplace.
- Be sure to complete our JNT community survey—available in English, Korean, and Chinese. The goal is to the help the Jibrel team understand how to best add value to the JNT community in its present state and with its current set of demographics and priorities. This survey will be a helpful additional data point as Jibrel continues to evaluate potentially viable JNT use cases from a legal, financial, and technical perspective.
- Check out this month’s Deep Dive for a look at the Jibrel alternative investing marketplace’s current roster of 6 startups. To become startup #7, apply today at jibrel.com/en/raise. To get on the list to invest in one of our startups, sign up and complete KYC at jibrel.com/en/invest.
The Jibrel alternative investing marketplace makes it simple to invest in startups and raise capital. Visit www.jibrel.com to start the application process.
Startup investing made simple. For everyone.
