The iSTOX platform makes it easy for individual investors to invest in private companies from around the world.

iSTOX, a digital securities platform announced today that it closed a Series A round of $50 million that included commitments from two new government-backed investors from Japan. The company will use the money to expand its operations across the globe. It also plans to broaden the scope of its investment offerings. (IBSIntelligence)

Continued confidence of investors

The two new Japanese government-backed investors are the venture capital arm of Japan Investment Corporation (JIC), or JIC Venture Growth Investments (JIC-VGI), and Development Bank of Japan Inc (DBJ). The latter is a financial institution wholly owned by the Japanese Government.

Japan’s Juroku Bank and Mobile Internet Capital (MIC), a venture capital firm, also signed on as new investors.

Existing investors Singapore Exchange (SGX), Japan’s Tokai Tokyo Financial Holdings, and Korea’s Hanwha Asset Management also participated.

iSTOX: Use of funds

Oi Yee Choo, Chief Commercial Officer said: “With the new financing, iSTOX will expand our footprint both geographically and in terms of investment offerings.”

“Our expansion in China, where we recently signed an agreement with Chongqing city, will continue apace. Also in the iSTOX pipeline are issuance deals involving other regions, including Europe and Australia,” she added.

Democratizing private equity

“We will roll out private issuances by blue-chip issuers that individual investors on our platform can subscribe to in bite-size portions,” said Oi Yee Choo.

Through the creation of security tokens using blockchain and smart contract technology, iSTOX automates manual processes. These procedures have hitherto made it impossible for traditional issuers to handle large numbers of smaller investors.

This enables iSTOX to reduce minimum investment ticket sizes.

In December iSTOX listed the first unicorn fund in the world to launch in digitized securities form. Dubbed the ICHAM Unicorn Opportunity Fund, it will invest in unicorns by buying equity from existing shareholders in the secondary market.

The proprietary exchange iSTOX has built also allows the secondary buying and selling of securities among investors. This enhances the liquidity and value of those investments.

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