Jibrel: October Update

Monthly Project Update — October 2019

Jibrel
Jibrel
Nov 1 · 11 min read

October was a major month for Jibrel.com, which won an award at the FinTech AD Innovation Challenge, is now regulated by ADGM’s FSRA for the purpose of developing & testing innovative fintech services within the RegLab, & was accepted into the MBRIF Accelerator. The team has also been preparing for the Jibrel.com MVP & has released updates to various infrastructural components such as Jwallet, which will be directly usable as part of the Jibrel.com platform.

Overall Project Status

For the entire team, Jibrel.com remains the primary focus. As of the time of writing, we have built out our system for startup and investor onboarding (KYC, AML, and ATF validation), and created compliant structures to generate legally enforceable digital securities. Having achieved these technical and regulatory objectives, within the coming months we will be tokenizing several MENA region startups as a proof of concept to demonstrate the legal and technical viability of the platform. Further, before the end of this year, we will be launching an MVP (minimum viable product) which will allow investors and startups to go through initial onboarding. Plans through January of 2020 include equity management, compliance, reporting, and both primary and secondary offerings.

Tech:

  • Jibrel.com: Our tech and product team are focusing on the MVP of Jibrel.com, which as mentioned is planned for delivery in the coming months.
Elena Kuznetsova, Head of Product for Jibrel, presenting at ProductSense 2019

Marketing:

  • Jibrel.com: The platform has over 2,000 pre-registrations logged as a result of marketing efforts so far. The marketing team is building out plans and assets for content, social media, digital performance-based advertising, and more.
MBRIF Accelerator’s Welcome Video for the Summer 2019 Cohort

Business Development:

  • FinTech AD Innovation Challenge Award: Pitched by Jibrel Co-Founder and COO Talal Tabbaa, Jibrel.com was one of two projects chosen from a pool of fourteen candidates. Selection criteria included breadth and depth of team experience, as well as the ability of the project to address the problem statement, to scale and generate revenue, and to establish market readiness and maturity. As an awardee, Jibrel will represent Abu Dhabi and the MENA region at the Global FinTech Hackcelerator in Singapore this November. Additionally, a panel of experts will help deploy Jibrel․com’s Proof of Concept (PoC) in the UAE and beyond. Various other benefits of the award include a SGD 200,000 grant, which will be used to foster the technical buildout and business development of the Jibrel.com platform.

Achievements, Challenges & Limitations

A Closer Look at Jibrel.com

Stakeholders: As a multipronged platform that brings together several different customer groups, Jibrel.com presents unique challenges as well as unique potential. On the one hand, the up-front investment is significant. With multiple different customer classes also comes the need for multiple product experiences, customer pipelines, and acquisition strategies. On the other hand, in contrast to the linear growth potential of more traditional business models, the potential network effects of this platform are exponential. Jibrel’s tech, product, marketing, and business development teams are hard at work taking the steps needed to drive that type of exponential growth. For more information on platform economics and strategy, check out an excellent summary here.

Regulation: So far, Jibrel has obtained regulations from a number of different authorities globally, which will be useful at various stages of Jibrel.com’s development. As mentioned in the “Overall Project Status” section, Jibrel has obtained FSRA permission from ADGM Reglab to conduct regulated financial activities. This will allow us to issue the MVP of the platform. However, this is one of several regulatory phases we will need to go through. Beyond additional licensing, other legal and compliance measures would need to be resolved in order to develop even further functionalities — for example, if Jibrel were to integrate cryptocurrency (as opposed to a blockchain backend and tokenized securities) into the functionality of this platform.

Geographic Focus: To start, we are primarily focusing on the MENA region, whose startup scene has historically been under-represented in terms of funding, despite the development of a wide variety of successful startups, and despite favorable investor protection systems such as legal and regulatory bodies. Despite this initial focus on MENA, regulatory, technical, and other components of the project are scalable to a global range of startups and SMEs as well as investors.

Overall Vision: As a startup with limited resources, Jibrel plans to be gradually rolling out the Jibrel.com platform. That said, the overall vision of the project is extremely all-encompassing. Our focus is on ultimately solving a wide variety of real-world problems — leveraging a wide variety of asset classes (such as debt, equity, commodities, and real estate). For more information on Jibrel.com, see COO Talal Tabbaa’s Jibrel.com pitch at the Fintech Abu Dhabi Innovation Challenge.

New Talent: Latest Hires

As previously mentioned, Jibrel’s hiring has slowed down in the past few months, as our focus has been on optimizing the productivity of our existing team. With that in mind, we have no new hires for October.

Monthly Deep-Dive

Some of The Biggest Digital Platform-Based Private Financing Deals of All Time

Many early-stage companies focused on building the future usually need capital in order to see their ideas come to life. Compared to traditional fundraising methods, setting up a successful equity financing campaign on platforms like Jibrel.com or other types of private financing campaigns on alternative platforms is far more efficient and effective in getting the message out to the right people.

For example, since Jibrel.com will provide a single platform where vetted startups can connect with institutional investors as well as individual accredited investors, there is a mutual assurance of high quality on both sides, as well as reduced effort in making valuable connections.

With the global private financing platform market valued at $10.2 Billion in 2018, many startups have already taken advantage of this. Below are some of the biggest raises to date we have seen in the space:

Hibergene Diagnostics

Raised: $5,700,000

Hibergene develops, manufactures, and sells highly accurate molecular diagnostics for the urgent diagnosis of two potentially fatal human infectious diseases known as Meningococcal and Group B Streptococcus. Hibergene believes its solution allows for timely and informed clinical decisions to be taken based on highly accurate diagnosis, potentially saving time and money compared to existing alternatives.

Revolut

Raised: $3,900,000

Revolut is a digital banking app that was able to raise $3.9 million. It promises to be better than your traditional bank account with services like free international transfers, free ATM withdrawals anywhere in the world, and free money exchange in 25 currencies. It also accepts cryptocurrecies.

Pebble E-Paper Watch

Raised: $10,266,845

Pebble E-Paper Watch remains the most-funded campaign to date, far exceeding its goal of $100,000 to create an affordable smartwatch back in 2012 when the market was new. In fact, the product attracted so much excitement that it raised nearly $1 million in just the first day.

Ouya

Raised: $8,596,474

The Android-powered game console, Ouya, was one of the highest-grossing projects. With an open-source design, the micro-console promised affordable streaming of indie games. After the campaign closed in August 2012, Ouya delivered its product to backers in March 2013 and put it on the market in June.

Bitvore

Raised: $4,500,000

Bitvore launched a digital platform-based equity funding campaign that raised $4.5 million after closing in March 2014. The company is based on a data visualization software that allows businesses to more easily monitor and analyze big data. The platform collects data from social, email, web traffic, sales, and manufacturing logs and runs these simultaneously and continuously, ensuring that businesses are always kept to date on information and events regarding their sales and operations.

The Micro

Raised: $3,401,361

M3D, based in Bethesda, Maryland, is the company behind creating the Micro. They had a mission to create an affordable, easy-to-use 3D printer for mainstream consumers. As a 7.3-inch cube, the printer came in neon colors, and the accompanying software was expected to be a simple drag and drop. With a great design and low price point, they surpassed their goal of $50,000 in just 11 minutes.

The Dash

Raised: $3,390,551

Germany-based hardware company Bragi launched The Dash, wireless in-ear headphones. The earbuds are multi-functional through apps, Bluetooth, and other sophisticated sensors. They have a built-in music player of 1,000 songs, can stream music, do fitness tracking, function as a headset, and have noise-canceling capabilities.

Oculus Rift

Raised: $2,437,429

Prior to its $2 billion acquisition by Facebook, virtual reality startup Oculus Rift got its start on Kickstarter, closing on $2.4 million. The team was developing the “first truly immersive virtual reality” that meant a headset for video games with a high-resolution display and head tracking. The campaign targeted developers who could pledge for access to a developer kit and then integrate games into the device. Their first consumer product was released on March 28th, 2016.

3Doodler Pens

Raised: $2,344,134

The 3Doodler Pen uses 3mm plastic thread, which is heated within the device and then solidifies into any creation of your imagination. Thus, it enables users to take their drawings off of the page. The company shipped its patented product in March 2014 and continues to sell the pen, thread, and other accessories online. In its campaign, the company also partnered with Etsy artists to inspire users and offer their designs as rewards, with the goal of creating a community of artists to use and market the product.

Canary Smart Home Security

Raised: $1,961,663

Canary is a single device with an HD video camera and sensors to track motion, temperature, air quality, vibration, and sounds wherever placed, all controlled by a mobile app. The app notifies users when something is amiss, such as unexpected movement or temperature changes, and allows them to act on it while also providing data and analysis easily. After its platform-based private financing success, the company closed on a $10 million Series A funding round.

Conclusion

Key Takeaways

  1. Jibrel.com was the winner of an award at the Abu Dhabi FinTech Festival Challenge, gaining a $200K SGD development grant and the support of various experts in the UAE. We will consequently represent the MENA region at the Global FinTech Hackcelerator in Singapore this November.

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Traditional Financial Assets on Ethereum

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Putting traditional assets on-chain https://jibrel.network/

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Traditional Financial Assets on Ethereum

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