May 9, 2022
The Pendulum Bull Case for VCs
SatoshiPay project, Pendulum chain, draws in VCs with its potential to build a fiat DeFi future
VCs (venture capital funds) are showing an ever-growing interest in crypto projects. Pendulum’s message of connecting traditional finance services to DeFi through a tailor-made decentralized fiat parachain, is more than arousing curiosity in VC investors.
$5m Private Sale Completed in 2021
Back in November 2021 we announced the over-subscribed private round sale for the PEN token. With strategic partners from around the globe including: coinIX, LD Capital, Duck DAO, 6K Starter and CRT Capital. In addition to these funds, high-profile angel investors like Daniel Masters and Shiyan Koh (Hustle Fund) participated. The full article summarizing this raise can be found here:
Since then there has been growing interest in further VC involvement with Pendulum. Watch this space. The capital raised through the private sale is being used to continue developing Pendulum chain, a blockchain being built on Polkadot’s Substrate framework to establish the missing link between fiat and DeFi with a sophisticated smart contract network.
Pendulum Ecosystem
The PEN token will serve as the native token of the Pendulum platform. This utility token will facilitate various functions including smart contract gas metering, transaction fees, collator incentives and on-chain governance. Powered by the PEN token, Pendulum plans to incubate and incentivize an entire ecosystem of projects that are building fiat use cases on DeFi.
This dApp ecosystem strategy includes building key partnerships (fiat anchors, chain bridges), incubating projects (forex AMMs, forex money markets) and grant programs (wallets & tools, fintech integrations). Therefore, investors will recognize that the PEN token opens up opportunities within a whole new token economy with multiple token projects & economies being built on top of it. VCs are all very familiar with the structure of equity businesses and will see the similarities between them and token businesses.
A SatoshiPay Project
One thing every VC will agree is a priority when vetting partner candidates is the project team. Pendulum is developed by SatoshiPay, a global fintech company founded in 2014. Since its founding, SatoshiPay launched products such as B2B cross-border money transfer services, a Stellar open-source wallet and micropayment processing services. SatoshiPay CEO Alex Wilke has 18 years of operational experience and is joined by CSO Dr Aaron Linder (Physics PhD) and CTO Dr. Torsten Stüber (Computer Science PhD) as well as a rapidly growing and fully public team of professionals. Not to mention the high level oversight from Founder & Chairman Meinhard Benn, who has been a blockchain programmer since 2011. Also, Danny Masters, another true crypto OG and current chairman of CoinShares is on the Satoshipay board of directors. It doesn’t get much more reliable than a core team of crypto OGs and PhDs.
“We are excited to see so much interest from investors and VCs in Pendulum. It reaffirms my conviction that we are building a critical piece of Web3 infrastructure that can revamp legacy banking & fintech services.”
Alex Wilke, CEO of SatoshiPay and Pendulum.
A VC Appetite for Polkadot
The upcoming crowdloans to enable Pendulum to become a Kusama parachain and then a Polkadot parachain are scheduled to happen soon! See this article to learn how they work and this article to guide you through setting up your Polkadot wallet.
Image from Yahoo Finance
Polkadot’s multi-chain interoperability and scalability properties make it the perfect foundation for a smart contract blockchain looking to connect fintech companies to all the opportunities DeFI has to offer. The good news is that VCs seem to like Polkadot projects. According to Messari’s fund analysis, around 42% of venture capital and hedge funds investing in crypto are betting on the success of Polkadot’s smart contracts platform. Founder Gavin Wood’s high profile reputation alongside Polkadot’s advanced smart contract technology and notoriety for focussing on useful tech (and not short term hype) likely help inspire trust from investors.
Summary
Given that Pendulum is constantly building new partnerships across the crypto and legacy finance industries with fiat stable token providers, blockchains, bridges, large fintech businesses, VCs will be invaluable in making new fruitful instroductions from their expansive networks. Forming partnerships with important industry players is becoming a habit, particularly after Pendulum was successfully chosen for the 2022 chort of the Berkeley Xcelerator program. Keep a close watch on Pendulum socials for investor updates and more information on the upcoming Kusama crowdload!
About Pendulum
Building the missing link between fiat and DeFi through a fiat-optimized smart contract blockchain based on Polkadot’s Substrate. Allowing traditional finance fiat services to integrate with DeFi applications such as specialized forex AMMs, lending protocols or yield farming opportunities. Developed by SatoshiPay.
Keep your eyes on the Pendulum!
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