London-based decentralized banking Startup BABB today announced the launch of its token sale event.
The token will be called 'BAX', and it will be used to pay for services, fees and licensing costs on the BABB platform along with some other functions like cross-currency conversion.
BABB will commence the pre-sale on 15th January. Registration is already underway, and the public sale will be held next month. But unlike most of the ICOs, BABB has planned to make its ICO a two-phase event - the second phase is scheduled after Q3 2019.
BABB is looking to raise millions with the first phase of the token sale and has put a hard cap of $20 million on the sale.
Founder and CEO Rushd Averroes said: “Blockchain startups have collectively raised more than US$5.3 billion throughout 2017, but a large proportion of companies have raised huge sums without a clear plan in place. We don’t think this current model is conducive to an agile development process or a lean business mindset which is why we’ve decided to launch our token sale in two phases.”
The team has also made their goals very clear - the plan mainly revolves around creating a solid market for the issued BAX token.
With the funds from the first phase of ICO, BABB is committing to create a smartphone app with bank account and international money transfer capabilities along with a European banking license. The team is also planning to enter into a partnership with a leading retail/central banks in emerging markets, to open corridors for international transactions.
“We want to be open and transparent with our community and future customers of the BABB platform. The reality is we don’t need funds all in one go, and we definitely don’t need it all immediately,” said Mr. Averroes.
In total, BABB will issue 50 million tokens. In the first phase 20 million will be released.
Though scheduled for more than a year later, with the funds from the second phase of the token sale BABB is planning to expand into new markets and release advanced functions like peer-to-peer lending. But before the initiation of the second phase, the team is also targeting a product launch.
“We believe in the product we’re building, and we want to make good on our promises before raising more money. Once we launch the platform and the token is in use in the market, we’ll supply that demand by releasing up to 10 billion more tokens. That’s why the second phase is contingent on these deliverables, and will take place no earlier than the third quarter of 2019,” concluded Mr. Averroes.
In 2017, we saw a whole new fundraising strategy emerge with ICOs. In 2018, with all these big ICOs lined up, this controversial technique will get a huge boost, and probably mainstream acceptance.
