London-listed financial technology company TechFinancials has just announced another acquisition in the Blockchain space. After committing to buy as much as 92 percent of diamonds exchange CEDEX, the company is now further diversifying its investment into next-generation technology.
The new company that TechFinancials focused on is named Footies. It is providing ticketing services for sports venues and teams. The deal between the firms entails the formation of a new company subsidiary called NewCo which will be focused on the development of the technology.
TechFinancials’ diversification effort continues to venture into broader solutions addressing real-life problems. The new venture is developing and marketing a blockchain-based ticketing product aiming to facilitate event economics management for both sports venues and teams.
The initial phase of the development would focus on enabling sports organizations to take full control over their ticket path once issued. This also includes a secondary market for the tickets after the primary sale.
The Former CEO of Liverpool FC, Ian Ayre, is joining the company as Chairman of NewCo. From its side, TechFinancials will license its own technological blockchain infrastructure to the new subsidiary.
Secondary Market Challenge
Rampant speculation with sports events ticket prices has driven prices for some events sky-high. This has been hurting both the teams and their fanbase.
Commenting on the venture, Ayre said: “There is huge demand for the secondary ticketing market in the sporting industry to be revolutionized in order to make it fully transparent and to make sure that a fairer deal is ensured for both the venues and the customers.”
Ayre shared that ticket touting has been harmful to both parties and the company’s primary goal is to solve the issue by making the market more stable and secure.
Financial Terms
TechFinancials will hold 75 percent of the shares of the newly created subsidiary NewCo with the remaining 25 being held by Footies. The founder and CEO of Footies, Ian Ayre, will become Chairman of NewCo.
Under the Agreement, TechFinancials is committing to support the financial needs of the NewCo with a cost cap of US$500,000. The funds will be used for the development of a proof of concept by NewCo for a European football club.
In addition to the financial commitment, TechFinancials is also licensing its technological blockchain infrastructure free-of-charge to NewCo.
Commenting on the deal, the CEO of TechFinancials, Asaf Lahav, said: “TechFinancials uses blockchain technology, Tokenization and smart contracts to make trading and exchanging "real assets" easier, cheaper and more accessible.”
“With the Footies platform built on the Company's pioneering proprietary blockchain infrastructure, we aim to disrupt the broken market of sports ticketing and bring the power back to venues, clubs and fans,” Lahav elaborated.
