BnkToTheFuture And Bitcoin Capital

BnkToTheFuture (BF) is an online investment platform using traditional and digital currencies. They offer venture capital, funds and crypto backed securities.

“The financial system is broken and it needs disrupting. We believe that disruption is going to come from entrepreneurs and a new breed of investors, not governments and banks. It is very important to us that this disruption is funded independent of the banking system so we don’t recreate the problems with banking all over again online.” – Simon Dixon, BnkToTheFuture co-founder and CEO

BF focuses on financial innovation and technology projects. In an interview with BNC, Co-Founder and CEO Simon Dixon explained that a startup can easily apply for a listing on the equity crowdfunding site online, but must include an investor slide deck. “If we like it we call them for a phone pitch and often invite them to pitch on our TV show.”

The TV show, Crowd Factor, is hosted by Dixon and Financial Journalist, FinTech Entrepreneur and Investor, Max Keiser. “If they are a good fit and they pass due diligence then we will work to get their best pitch live and secure some early investors before making the pitch public for new investors,” stated Dixon

Dixon explained that following the TV show, he and Keiser may invest through their fund called Bitcoin Capital, or personally after going through due diligence. Bitcoin Capital is a fund managed by Keiser and Dixon, which initially raised funds on BnkToTheFuture. The pitch on BF described the fund as, “high risk, high return,” and raised over 1.5M EUR. Following the successful funding, they have now launched a second tranche for $5 million to invest further in the sector.

“This is a high risk, high return investment fund giving exposure to the world of Crypto Currencies across mining, coin investments and investing in companies in the sector.”
— – Simon Dixon

According to a recent BF press release, investors have been receiving daily dividends for the last two weeks from Tranche 1 of Bitcoin Capital.  In addition, over $13 million has been raised for Bitcoin related projects on the platform. Many projects featured on their site are in over funded territory, surpassing their initial goals.

The majority of pitches currently on the BF site have been funded externally, some through Bitcoin Capital. More than a quarter of the pitches participated in an accelerator program, prior to the launch of the online investment platform. Companies that graduated from the accelerator were supported by BF in raising finance externally. “The amount raised is based upon information in the public domain or information they have given us, but the amount has not been verified by us legally,” states the disclaimer on these pitches.

A similar number of companies raised finance on the beta version of the platform, directly from their own investors. “Using our technology before we started specialising in financial innovation and technology investment opportunities,” states the BF site.

Bitcoin Capital appears to have snapped up a large proportion of the pitches that raise funds on the platform, including Factom, BitReserve and Shapeshift.io.

“All applications from companies wishing to pitch for investment from Bitcoin Capital are processed through our partner online investment platform – BnkToTheFuture.com”
— – Bitcoin Capital

These companies are not raising finance through BnkToTheFuture.com directly. Bitcoin Capital has invested in these companies, “and secured some additional shares to allocate to investors on the exact same terms as Bitcoin Capital and other investors in this funding round. Bitcoin Capital will hold any shares on behalf of investors and BnkToTheFuture.com will put a nominee agreement in place to hold any investments.” reads the statement on each of the companies pitches.

“When it comes to financial innovation we are a team of experts that often invest our own funds in the investment opportunities listed on our site so our interests are aligned.”
— – BnkToTheFuture

Bitcoin Capital was founded by Keiser and Dixon, and is described as “a Cayman Islands tax efficient investment fund for professional investors who want exposure to the growth of Crypto Currencies like Bitcoin and Blockchain technology. It is a specialist fund that pays daily dividends to investors in Bitcoin, for as long as their mining investment produce a return.”

“We are able to offer investors daily dividend determined by the mining process. We are able to do all the geeky things like running mining rigs in Iceland and buying coins on exchanges that investors who are new to the sector are unable to do.”
— – Dixon

While the BnkToTheFuture platform charges 5 percent across the board for the services they provide, including funds raised, future exits and dividends paid, Bitcoin Capital charges 1 percent for Assets Under Management and takes half of the dividends as payment. According to the funds investor documents, dividends are paid “as coins are generated through mining, successful investments and exits of venture capital investments either through trade sales or a successful listing on a stock market”

“If a business does not raise finance, they pay nothing to us. If an investor does not make money, they pay nothing to us,”  Simon has stated. Although he did clarify, “we are not the cheapest way to invest by any stretch of the imagination. If you’re very experienced in this space and you want to manage your own investments, there are a lot cheaper ways of doing it.”

To attract new investors an initial investment is offered for free, which Dixon says will attract a wider crowd of qualifying investors. The free investment constitutes 100 StartCOIN.

The StartCOIN Mining Backed Securities Fund was one of four projects to receive funding on the BF platform without prior investment from Bitcoin Capital, the remainder having been funded externally. Dixon, Keiser and BF own 25% of the company behind the StartCOIN fund.

StartCOIN is a digital currency tied to StartCOIN Holdings another BnkToTheFuture crowdfund project co-founded by Keiser.

The remaining three projects on the site that have been funded through the BF platform  include the original Bitcoin Capital Fund, Bitcoin Capital Tranche 2, and BF Crypto Bond. BF Crypto Bond is wholly owned by Bank To the Future.

Simon outlines that there are two types of people that BF and Bitcoin Capital cater to. The first is people that want to benefit from, “the fact we have been in this sector from a very early age [and] we know most of the people in the sector,” stated Dixon. “There are people that would much rather have experts in the sector manage their investments. They’re professional investors, but this sector is very new for them.”

The second type of person the platform targets is the professional investor, “that knows how to invest themselves.” According to Dixon, “they are very active in the Bitcoin space but they can’t get access to deals that we can… But with us, we actually give the opportunity after the fact for investors that may not have been in the right circles to get involved in that round and invest on the same terms as the VCs.”

Updated: July 28