Bnk To The Future Is Changing The Way People Invest In Startups
The blockchain industry is closing in on a decade worth of development and innovation but, to many, this remains a brand new sector. The wave of mainstream interest in the space that’s arisen, for the most part, over the last twelve months, has led to many (who are new to bitcoin, blockchain and cryptocurrency) believing that the companies that comprise the industry are all brand new.
On the contrary, a number of companies have developed and grown alongside bitcoin and other early entrant cryptocurrencies, fostering the build-out of the infrastructure and framework that now supports this $500 billion dollar plus industry.
One of those companies is Bnk To The Future.
Back in 2010, Bnk To The Future founder Simon Dixon set out to create the largest and most reputable online investment platform in order to co-invest with other professional investors in the future of finance and technology.
Since that date, and in line with the tremendous growth we have seen in the bitcoin and blockchain spaces, the company has logged over $250 million interested in funding rounds listed on its platform, has invested in some of the biggest and most well-known blockchain startups (long before the term ICO was coined), has developed a portfolio and provided investors with access to some of the biggest names in the space and has paved the way for a completely reimagined future financial and investment landscape.
But it doesn’t stop there. Indeed, this really could be just the beginning for the company and its platform.
As outlined in this white paper, Bnk To the Future investors have pushed the company to offer next-level access to some of the up and coming top tier blockchain companies and, in response, Bnk To The Future has developed (and intends to launch this year) a secondary market with a compliance-driven Blockchain-based trading platform.
In line with this launch, the company is launching a token called the BF token, which it intends to use as the basis for the technological and community-driven demands of the secondary market and its associated platform.
The token solves a number of problems that face this sort of secondary market right now.
For example, it can be used to incentivize investor relations activity between the companies that Bnk To The Future’s platform investors are invested in and the companies themselves.
But that’s not all. Through a combination of the token and the secondary market, investors in the platform and its companies will be able to trade equity in the funded companies among one another, which should serve to provide liquidity for these (essentially) privately owned entities – something that for all intents and purposes doesn’t exist right now and certainly is something that’s available to anyone outside of the high net worth venture capital circles that have dominated tech startup financing historically.
Essentially, and as pointed out at the end of last year by Bloomberg, what Bnk To The Future is trying to create is a competitor platform to the Nasdaq Private Market, but with a primary focus on blockchain technology.
Focused on, that is, and built using, blockchain technology, of course,
So what’s next for Bnk To The Future?
This space is one that’s riddled with regulatory risks and potholes and, as such, progress has to be slow and steady as opposed to the company employing a ‘try it and see’ approach. This will ensure that there’s no (or at least reduce the risk of) trouble down the line, but it also means that the hard work is front-loaded as far as progress towards the above-outlined goals is concerned.
With that said, the company is already (tentatively) distributing its BF tokens as part of an early pre-registration program. By the third quarter of this year, the goal is to launch the full tokenized securities marketplace with Bnk To The Future’s first two companies on its secondary market.