Successful completion of LakeDiamond Bank sale in partnership with Swissquote; start of the ICO, with a focus on private institutional actors
LakeDiamond has reached its 5mio CHF Token Sale objective during the Private and the Bank sale, and officially launches its ICO, which will focus on addressing the high demand from HNWI and private institutional actors.
LakeDiamond, global leader in the blockchain-based production and transformation of ultra-pure lab-grown diamonds for high-tech industrial applications, announced today the successful completion of its Bank Sale phase in partnership with Swissquote. Having reached the 5 million CHF threshold, the company is now turning its eyes to the ICO. Though the ICO remains open to everyone, the company is focusing this phase on HNWI and institutional actors in light of the strong demand during the ICO roadshow that led the company management from Lausanne to Geneva, Zurich, Singapore and Abu Dhabi. Organizations and individuals willing to participate in this public phase and acquire the remaining tokens can register on the company’s website Token Sale page: www.lakediamond.ch/tokensale.
The threshold reached today certainly makes LakeDiamond the most successful token sale of 2019 in Switzerland so far. Thanks to the tokens sold to date, the company is able to seize the demand uptick for lab-grown diamonds by investing in two additional Micro-Wave Chemical Vapor Deposition (MWCVD) reactors, which in turn will permit to ramp up the company’s production capacity from 2’000 to 8’000 diamond plates for clients in the watchmaking and laser industries for instance. Tokens acquired during the Bank Sale and the Private Sale will be officially distributed, as scheduled, during the month of March 2019.
LakeDiamond innovative approach was recently highlighted by Forbes, and the company’s industrial developments in the CHF 7.7 billion drone market also received recognition from Wired (Drop the Batteries — Diamonds and Lasers Could Power Your Drone) and Le Monde (Des faisceaux lasers pour alimenter des drones). In January 2019 the company announced an industrial partnership with energy giant TAQA to reduce energy infrastructure costs and facilitate sustainable, clean, and safe electricity distribution thanks to laser-based wireless power-beaming technology. With these industrial applications of its lab-grown diamonds at the centre of attentions, especially regarding diamond-powered drones, LakeDiamond noticed a solid demand from organizations looking to diversify their portfolio in a mature ICO-based industrial project.
A world first: LakeDiamond has collaborated with Swissquote for its exclusive Bank Sale in order to offer participants the ease to contribute through the bank’s platform directly with Swiss francs. Before this world premiere collaboration, in order to participate in an ICO, contributors needed to understand blockchain technology and own a blockchain wallet, which is no longer required thanks to this new bank service. During LakeDiamond Bank Sale from October 22, 2018 to February 24, 2019, clients could purchase tokens issued by LakeDiamond directly against Swiss francs, using their trading account.
In parallel of its Token Sale, LakeDiamond continues to address the ultra-pure lab-grown diamonds market, which is expected to reach CHF 18.4bn by 2022, as it expands 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).
Already collaborating with a major Swiss watchmaker to incorporate diamond-based micro-mechanical parts in watch mechanisms, and working with EPFL’s prof. Eli Kapon on remotely charging drones and satellites thanks to lab-grown diamonds for energy transfer, LakeDiamond has also solid partnerships to accelerate go-to-market in photonics, electronics and biotech. The company is collaborating with EPFL’s prof. Elison Matioli on high power transistors with lab-grown diamonds and with EPFL’s prof. Christophe Galland on diamond-based magnetometer.
Pascal Gallo, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of LakeDiamond, commented: “I am extremely proud of the team’s efforts and the results of our Bank Sale. I also want to thank all the participants that acquired tokens to participate in our project. This success show that, despite the current market context, participants value our innovative blockchain crowdfunding opportunity allowing them to contribute directly to the company industrial production capacity thanks to crypto tokens corresponding to actual machine time. It also shows that they recognize 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.”