Jibrel: October Update
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.
- Jwallet: The team is working on a new version of Jwallet Web. The web version will include a full web app redesign and UX rework, and this version will have the look and feel of the Android and iOS Apps, which had received similarly major upgrades in months prior. Additionally, they released a minor update to the iOS wallet, which included various bug fixes and performance improvements. All of this work builds into the progress of the Jibrel.com platform.
- Backend: Our infrastructural team worked on a wide array of projects, including a validator framework, fundamental data validators for total supply, max supply, circulating supply, a static gas amount validator, an increase grabber for aggregator throughput, and sync improvements.
- ProductSense: Jibrel’s Head of Product, Elena Kuznetsova, gave a talk at ProductSense 2019, which took place in Minsk, Belarus on October 28th–29th. The conference is the largest product management conference in Eastern Europe. Her talk focused on product localization for the Latin American market, based on her experiences leading localization efforts for products such as Jwallet.
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.
- Fintech AD Booth and Overall Presence: Jibrel.com hosted a booth at the Abu Dhabi FinTech Festival. The entire founding team was in attendance and had the opportunity to connect with a multitude of startups and investors focused on the MENA region—fostering valuable connections for the buildout of the Jibrel.com platform and its customer base. In addition to delivering a Jibrel.com pitch, COO Talal Tabbaa spoke on a panel at Token Night on topics such as traditional investing difficulties as well as the differences between security tokens vs. tokenized securities (the latter of which will be a key part of Jibrel.com). His Excellency Ahmed Ali Al Sayegh, Minister Of State (UAE) and the Executive Chairman of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), also stopped by the Jibrel booth to speak with Talal and learn more about our company. CEO Yazan Barghuthi was interviewed on the business case for Jibrel.com, and the project’s fundamental connection to the Jibrel Whitepaper. CTO Victor Mezrin also spoke about the Jibrel product and tech strategy in connection to Jibrel.com. Be sure to click on the bolded links above, which contain video highlights from the event! We also have video highlights from Day 1 and Day 2 of the conference.
- Innovation Challenge Press Coverage: Our award at the FinTech AD Innovation Challenge (see below) was picked up by over a dozen press and media influencer sources, including the Saudi Gazette, Al Bayan, Jinse, and Emirates News.
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.
- MBRIF Accelerator Acceptance: The Mohammed bin Rashid Innovation Fund (MBRIF) is a federally-sponsored initiative conceived and sponsored by the UAE’s Ministry of Finance to identify and nurture high potential innovations both within the UAE and abroad. MBRIF is administered by the Emirates Development Bank (EDB) and focuses on the seven sectors of the UAE National Innovation Strategy: Space, Transport, Education, Technology, Water, Clean Energy, and Health. The Summer Cohort was chosen after a three-month-long process in which 159 applications from 38 countries across 6 continents were reviewed. We are honored to be supported by MBRIF and this partnership is instrumental in translating Jibrel’s vision into reality and enhancing the growth of the company within the UAE and beyond.
- ADGM FSRA Reglab Permission: As of early October, Jibrel is now regulated by the Abu Dhabi Global Market Financial Services Regulatory Authority (‘FSRA’) for the purpose of developing and testing innovative financial technology services within the Regulatory Laboratory (‘RegLab’). For more details, see ADGM’s Financial Services and Markets Regulations 2015 document. This regulation means that Jibrel will be legally able to conduct a test where we will tokenize the equity of MENA startups and SMEs, and will offer this equity to institutional and accredited investors. Jibrel plans to continue to obtain additional licensing from the same regulator, which will enable a successively wider variety of functionalities for Jibrel.com.
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.
Human Resources
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
- 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.
- Jibrel.com obtained ADGM FSRA Reglab permission to conduct regulated activities. In the coming months, we will tokenizing several MENA region startups as a proof of concept and will be rolling out the Jibrel.com MVP.
- The tech team is working on the release of a major Jwallet Web upgrade, as well as various additions to Jibrel’s blockchain-based backend system. All of these will be leveraged directly in the buildout of Jibrel.com.
- Jibrel.com will initially focus on private equity financing in the MENA region but plans to gradually expand in scope—including a progressively wider variety of features, functionalities, asset classes, and regions. As a multi-pronged platform with global potential to solve a wide variety of real-world problems.
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