Partnership will deliver opportunities to end-investors seamlessly and in fractional sizes; first product sees minimum investment reduced by 25x due to efficiency of digital securities

Investcorp, a leading global provider and manager of alternative investment products, and private capital exchange ADDX – formerly known as iSTOX – announced today a long-term partnership to expand the use of digital securities in the alternative investment or private market space. The collaboration promises a more seamless, coordinated delivery of opportunities to end-investors and will benefit accredited corporate and individual investors, offering them easier access to opportunities that traditionally require high minimum ticket sizes.

The first product that was offered under the partnership was a diversified portfolio of US residential properties. The Sunbelt Multifamily Portfolio raised US$150 million from global investors to be invested in five multifamily[1] apartment complexes at near-full occupancy[2]. The properties are in Texas, Arizona and Georgia, markets experiencing healthy economic and population growth. Following the close of primary subscription[3], the fund was listed on the ADDX Exchange for secondary trading in July.

Since 1996, Investcorp has acquired more than 900 properties for a total value of more than US$20 billion. According to Real Capital Analytics, Investcorp is the 3rd largest cross-border buyer of US real estate and 4th largest cross-border seller, over the full years of 2019 and 2020. The Sunbelt Multifamily Portfolio is the 20^th such US fund which has been launched by Investcorp since 2012.

The Investcorp-ADDX partnership could cover a variety of alternative investment opportunities. The two companies will explore possible joint projects in areas such as private equity, real estate, credit management, absolute returns investments, strategic capital, and infrastructure. Investcorp is expanding its Asia footprint, having invested about $500 million in the continent over the past 18 months, in sectors such as technology, healthcare and consumer consumption. Investcorp could potentially make more opportunities available on ADDX’s regulated digital securities platform, which

currently serves accredited investors[1] from 27 countries, spanning Asia Pacific, Europe, and the Americas.

Digital securities, also known as security tokens, make use of blockchain and smart contract technology to automate processes in the life cycle of securities such as equity, bonds, and funds. The innovation reduces the time and cost needed to issue, custodise, and service securities, because actions such as capitalisation table management, dividend and coupon payment and secondary trades can become digital and self-executing. This efficiency makes it possible to offer private market investments in fractional sizes, which allows investors to take part in opportunities previously out of reach due to high minimums. This in turn enables more diversified portfolios. The ADDX Exchange also gives investors the option of cashing out ahead of maturity. Issuers benefit too – from lower issuance cost, faster speed to issuance, and access to a larger pool of capital.

YC Tang, Vice President, Investor Relationship Management, Asia at Investcorp said: “We are pleased to have this partnership with ADDX to provide the segment of underserved investors with an array of diversified alternative investment products through a secure and an efficient platform. The Sunbelt Multifamily Portfolio is the first product we offered under this partnership, and we look forward to potentially offering more through this innovative platform, to meet the demands of a growing global marketplace.”

Oi Yee Choo, Chief Commercial Officer of ADDX, said: “The beauty of this new partnership lies in the fact that Investcorp and ADDX are both experts in the private markets – and yet we do have different geographical and commercial focus areas. When we combine our strengths, there is a fresh dynamism – an exciting, invigorating prospect. Individuals and companies that work with us will have an assurance that their capital is put to work in a smart way and in high-quality products. In the case of the Sunbelt Multifamily Portfolio, the efficiency gains from digital securities meant investors on ADDX could take part in the fund with a minimum amount of US$20,000 – significantly lower than the US$500,000 typically required for private real estate funds.”

Ms Choo added: “When we look at the way sovereign wealth funds and large pension funds invest, alternative assets make up a significant and growing share of their holdings because the blend of private and public investments helps to maximise long-term returns. With digital securities enabling fractional sizes, accredited individual investors can now, for the first time, take a similar approach. There is fairer access to economic growth.”

Founded in 2017, ADDX is fully regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). The financial technology company is backed by Singapore Exchange, Temasek subsidiary Heliconia Capital and Japan government-backed investors JIC Venture Growth Investments (JIC-VGI) and the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ)[2].

Enthusiastic staff more than double their gift towards the life-changing surgeries and training the charity provides in Africa

inCruises International announced this week that what began as a $100K fundraising goal to benefit their corporate charity of choice has now exceeded $250K raised to help the life-changing work of Mercy Ships.

Announced last February, the company's goal was to allow its members, supporters, and employees to be inspired to give and engage in a matching fund opportunity that would double their impact on the charity's healthcare services to those without other access in sub-Saharan Africa. The inCruises community surpassed the initial $100,000 goal a few weeks into the campaign and raised a total of $261K by August 12, 2021.

Inspired by inCruises partner Javier Cardona, inCruises and Mercy Ships galvanized their connection in 2021. “As a parent of a child born with a congenital malformation, my family's dream was to get involved with an organization that could help special children in need like ours. Many families do not have the resources for the treatment and surgeries their children need; some of these conditions are even life-threatening. For these reasons, I became a believer in the mission of Mercy Ships, and I hope our inCruises family will do the same.”

Mercy Ships is a non-profit organization and works with nations in sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen local healthcare systems and provide national medical professionals training opportunities. The Africa Mercy®, a former Danish rail ferry, is currently preparing to return to West Africa in 2022. The organization is also outfitting their newest purpose-built vessel, the Global Mercy™, in Belgium until the new year. Built with the benefit of more than 30 years of offering surgical care, the new vessel will be the world's largest non-governmental hospital ship.

"The excellent work Mercy Ships does serves as a role model of possibility and positivity for some of the world's most needy. Their healing work has empowered our team to give back and support areas of the world that need medical resources the most. We are incredibly grateful to support the life-changing medical solutions Mercy Ships provides," states inCruises CEO Michael Hutchison.

"To provide access to critical surgical expertise in localities where this is simply unavailable to the general population, Mercy Ships relies on the partnership of volunteers and supporters around the world," said Robert Corley, Chief Operating Officer of Mercy Ships. "The incredible commitment from generous corporate partners and donors like inCruises makes it possible to provide these services at no cost to the recipients."

DTI Product Advisory Committee, (PAC) kicks off with first meeting amid regulatory focus on crypto-markets

The Digital Token Identifier Foundation (DTIF) announces the first meeting of Digital Token Identifier (DTI) Product Advisory Committee, (PAC), which took place on Thursday 12th August, 2021.  The DTIF is responsible for the DTI Registry and providing stewardship on DTI implementation, and is a new non-profit division of Etrading Software (ETS), the Registration Authority for the ISO Digital DTI standard, ISO 24165. The PAC has been established to discuss the new vendor-neutral, open, freely available, global DTI standard. 

The PAC will meet monthly and one of the first areas of focus for this industry forum is stable-coins, a priority for the DTI Service upon launch in September. The PAC will also discuss such topics as how future regulatory changes will impact the crypto-market landscape. 

The PAC comprises more than 20 members, representing a cross-section of crypto-market participants, global institutional investors, standards bodies, academics, asset managers and market infrastructure providers, from multiple global regions.  The complete list of PAC members is available on the DTIF website (details below).  

Sassan Danesh, Managing Partner of Etrading Software, said, “We are delighted to announce the first meeting of the PAC this week, and pleased that such a comprehensive cross section of industry both geographically and by sector is involved. This broadest collaboration, expertise and knowledge represented in both the DTIF and PAC will ensure for a DTI which will bring efficiencies and transparencies to the market.”

The crypto-asset class the DTI will cover includes crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin, as well as multiple other product types, such as stable-coins, security-tokens and utility-tokens. With thousands of crypto-assets in the market, and the list rapidly growing, there has so far been no standard way to identify one digital token from another. Currently, the same digital token can have multiple different identifiers. The DTI standard will work for industry to identify crypto asset trades to improve transparency and efficiency. It is expected standardization could help investors that operate at scale and consequently manage large operations groups to process crypto-asset transactions without having to significantly rework their existing systems and processes.

Fujitsu Limited (TSE 6702) and NEC Corporation (TSE 6701) have begun developing technologies for interoperability testing(1) between 5G base station equipment conforming to O-RAN specifications at Fujitsu's U.S. laboratories and NEC's U.K. laboratories. This initiative will be implemented as part of the 'Post 5G Infrastructure Enhancement R&D Project' under the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan. Both companies are scheduled to build a verification environment using these technologies in their respective laboratories from August of this year, then will begin interoperability testing. Leveraging this verification environment offers the potential to significantly streamline interoperability verification between base station equipment from different vendors.

Figure 1. Conformance Test System incorporating interoperability verification technologies.

Through this initiative, Fujitsu, NEC, and NEDO will accelerate the global reach of base station equipment that conforms to O-RAN specifications, and contribute to stimulating growth and innovation in the open 5G market.

1. Summary

With the start of 5G commercial services in various countries, post 5G(2) with enhanced functions such as ultra-low latency and multiple simultaneous connections is expected to be used in a variety of industries, such as automobile factories. It is expected that the technologies that realize these functions will serve as the core of Japan's competitiveness.

In recent years, base station equipment has become more open due to O-RAN fronthaul interface specifications(3) formulated by the O-RAN Alliance(4), and it is becoming possible to connect to RUs (radio units) and CUs / DUs (central units / distributed units) from a variety of vendors. However, in order to quickly verify interoperability between different vendors' equipment, it is necessary to establish a verification process, develop tools that can be used in common, and to develop a verification environment.

Under these circumstances, NEDO commissioned Fujitsu and NEC to conduct R&D on assessment and verification technologies for interoperability between base station equipment in the "Post 5G Infrastructure Enhancement R&D Project," which is scheduled to run from FY2020 to FY2023. In response, Fujitsu and NEC are building an environment and developing technologies to assess and verify the interoperability of different vendors' equipment and the impact of such connections on the entire network.

Fujitsu and NEC have begun developing technologies to verify base station equipment interoperability at their respective facilities in the U.S. and the U.K.. Fujitsu is conducting trials at its Open RAN laboratory hosted at Fujitsu Network Communications, Inc., a Fujitsu group company in the United States, while NEC is doing so at its laboratory in NEC Europe Ltd., London, U.K..

2. Characteristics of technology for interoperability verification and establishment of a verification environment
1) Significantly improve the efficiency of interoperability verification
Fujitsu and NEC will combine their many years of experience and know-how in developing base station equipment compliant with O-RAN fronthaul interface specifications. The two companies will develop technologies to verify the interoperability of various vendors' equipment for O-RAN fronthaul. The technologies include FHA(5), P-DU(6), test scenario extraction tools(7), test parameter change tools(8), and validation result determination tools(9). Introducing these technologies into the verification environments of both companies' laboratories, will make it possible to significantly improve the efficiency of interoperability verification for different vendors' equipment.
2) Verification under conditions close to commercial environments
In this project, Fujitsu's lab in the U.S. and NEC's lab in the U.K. will make it possible to implement a Conformance Test System that can perform standard tests in accordance with O-RAN specifications and to implement an End-to-End (E2E) Test System that can verify the connection from the core network to the terminal. In addition, by incorporating the newly developed technologies into the interoperability test systems, it will be possible to efficiently conduct system-wide normality verification and performance verification under conditions that are close to the commercial environments of each country and business.
3. Future plans
Fujitsu and NEC will establish a verification environment using new technologies in their respective laboratories from August of this year, and will begin interoperability testing. The two companies will collaborate with carriers, equipment vendors, and governments in various countries and regions, aiming to significantly reduce the time required to conduct interoperability testing for base station equipment. The companies will also work with NEDO to support the global adoption and development of equipment that conforms to O-RAN specifications through this project, thereby contributing to the stimulation and growth of the open 5G market.
(1) Interoperability Testing: Evaluates and verifies the connectivity between base station equipment, whether maximum throughput can be achieved, and whether required throughput can be achieved even when multiple user devices are connected.
(2) Post 5G: 5G with enhanced functions such as ultra-low latency and multiple simultaneous connections.
(3) O-RAN Fronthaul interface: An open interface that connects CU/DU and RU formulated by O-RAN Alliance.
(4) O-RAN Alliance (Open Radio Access Network Alliance): An industry-wide organization that promotes standardization with the aim of realizing an open and scalable next-generation wireless access network, incl 5G.
(5) FHA (FrontHaul Analyzer): The technology for verifying the normality of fronthaul protocols (M-Plane, CUS-Plane) in accordance with O-RAN specifications.
(6) P-DU (Pseudo-DU): The technology verifying the normality of the RU itself.
(7) Test scenario extraction tool: A tool that automatically extracts the best test scenario for each 5G network.
(8) Test parameter change tool: A tool that automatically extracts and changes test parameters for more efficient verification.
(9) Verification result determination tool: A tool that automatically checks pass or fail status of verification results.

Teraco Data Environments Proprietary Limited, Africa’s largest vendor-neutral data centre and interconnection services provider, has completed the JB3 data centre facility, located within the Isando Campus in Ekurhuleni, east of Johannesburg, South Africa.

This multi-billion-rand facility represents a strategic addition to Platform Teraco, offering enterprises a scalable platform for IT infrastructure deployment while sustaining performance, reliability, security, and the widest network choice. JB3 comprises 45000sqm of building structure, 12000sqm of data hall space, and 29MW of critical power load. When combined with the existing Isando Campus facilities, the critical power load totals 40MW across the campus data centre footprint with room for further growth.

Jan Hnizdo, CEO, Teraco, says that the latest Isando Campus expansion meets the growing demand by both cloud providers and enterprises for data centre capacity and enables Teraco to offer highly resilient and secure colocation facilities while working towards ensuring its long-term vision of enabling digital transformation across the African continent: “This investment also aligns with the support we pledged to the South African Government’s investment drive and our commitment to investing billions of Rands into South Africa’s digital infrastructure. As the leading interconnection hub across the continent, Teraco has over 600 clients, including key networks, cloud providers, global content, managed IT service providers, and direct access to Africa’s largest Internet exchange, NAPAfrica; within its multitude of data centres.”

With over 200 telcos within Platform Teraco providing connectivity to Africa, Hnizdo says that enterprises are now accelerating their digital transformation strategies and placing a greater focus on cloud adoption strategies: “Teraco is making significant investments in providing access to digital infrastructure that is both resilient and highly flexible. This offers enterprises the ability to scale as network strategies evolve in a world where fast and secure interconnection with strategic business partners and cloud on-ramps are a source of competitive advantage.”

Platform Teraco provides the lowest latency interconnection points to both cloud and content. With a direct private connection to all leading cloud providers, enterprises can deploy in the most latency efficient, secure and resilient manner possible. Enterprises can also deploy their public, private and hybrid cloud strategies from the Teraco platform and significantly reduce the time and cost to access these cloud platforms.

Hnizdo says Teraco has continued to see growth in cloud adoption strategies making its role significant for those who need access to robust digital infrastructure: “Our clients use the data centre to scale their IT infrastructure, adopt hybrid and multi-cloud architectures and interconnect with strategic business partners within the Teraco ecosystem. Over the last year, we have seen a 48% increase in direct interconnects to public cloud on-ramps, reflecting the increasing trend of cloud adoption by enterprises.”

 KGiSL, a global IT products, services and solutions provider, has announced a landmark contract win from the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), one of the largest stock exchanges in ASEAN, to provide a Broker Back Office platform for Thailand's brokers. KGiSL's offering, which will be hosted by SET and made available to all capital market brokers, will be based on its flagship Dolphin platform, an end-to-end back-office system that eases business operations with seamless and controlled automation. The implementation is expected to be completed within 16 months.

Dolphin, the leading back office platform in India, caters to 60% of its institutional brokers, supporting back office clearing and settlement operations. Dolphin is set to become the one-stop solution for brokers in Thailand, with its ability to handle multiple asset classes including equities, bonds and offshore trading for both retail and institutional brokers. The next-generation technology platform has been tested for handling 5 million trades/day and has the potential capability to scale vertically and horizontally, supporting increases in business volumes. Dolphin was chosen over other leading systems because it was a better fit for requirements and for the robustness, scalability and automation capabilities it offers.

Dr Pakorn Peetathawatchai, President, The Stock Exchange of Thailand said, "This is one of our most ambitious and challenging projects to establish a common, streamlined infrastructure that will open up new possibilities for Thai brokers to revolutionize back office business models. We strongly believe that continued support from participating brokers in providing valuable insights along with KGiSL's delivery capabilities will be key ingredients in contributing to the project's success."

On the association with SET, Prassadh Shanmugam, Director & Chief Executive Officer KGiSL said, "This is a huge win for KGiSL. Dolphin has been the undisputed market leader in India so far, but we have had limited successes in other markets. This order opens up the entire ASEAN & APAC market to create similar success stories like how we have done in India. KGiSL is poised to invest more in Dolphin's capabilities by adding Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Business Intelligence (BI) and Analytics. I would also like to thank Dr Pakorn Peetathawatchai, President of The Stock Exchange of Thailand and the entire management of SET for placing their trust in KGiSL and Dolphin."
 

• M1ST is the largest mobile payments network in the world, reaching 5.7 billion payment accounts in 90 countries through 330+ mobile payment methods
• Through M1ST, merchants can quickly and securely accept mobile wallets, real-time payments and carrier billing through a single API integration

Boku Inc. (AIM: BOKU) today announced the launch of the M1ST (aka Mobile First), the world’s largest mobile payments network. The M1ST Payments Network features an unrivalled 330+ mobile payment methods, including mobile wallets, direct carrier billing, and real-time payments schemes, reaching 5.7 billion mobile payment accounts in 90 countries - all through a single integration.

1.7 billion consumers have joined the world’s middle class in the past decade, with over 90% of the new middle class in emerging markets (Brookings Institute, 2020). Many of the world’s new middle class in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East are bypassing credit cards, and moving from cash to mobile payments like GoPay, Paga, PicPay and UPI. According to the World Bank, 45% of consumers globally use mobile wallets vs. just 18% that use credit cards for payments.

However, mobile payment acceptance for global merchants is highly complex, especially due to the extreme fragmentation of mobile payment methods. M1ST solves a number of these challenges so that merchants can easily accept mobile payments, globally, and at scale, including:

• Standardization - M1ST removes the complexity of disparate technical, legal and contractual considerations, simplifying 330+ payment methods into a single, scheme-like network.
• Digitally Native - M1ST enabled payments are built to support the 0-tap subscriptions and 1-tap checkout transactions that enable new, online business models.
• Future-Proofed - By 2025, nearly 60% of consumers globally are projected to be using mobile wallets; the M1ST Network follows market demand to maximize merchant acceptance.
• Global Settlement - M1ST delivers merchants a single, global settlement, eliminating the complexity of local taxes, foreign exchange, and cash repatriation.
• Local Legal Infrastructure - Through payment licenses and local entities, M1ST is capable of accepting regulated payments in nearly 50 countries.

M1ST is designed to eliminate the difficulty of mobile payment acceptance so that merchants can accept mobile payments more quickly, at lower cost, and focus on building world-class user experiences that drive long-term, valuable relationships with their customers.

“We’ve seen a fundamental shift of consumer purchasing power from west to east, from established to emerging markets, and from credit cards to mobile payments. Today, we’re launching the M1ST Network to enable global merchants to acquire, monetize, and retain mobile-first consumers,” said Jon Prideaux, CEO of Boku. “For merchants to capitalize on the massive potential of mobile-first consumers, they need to accept the payment methods they have and prefer, which are increasingly behind glass screens, not rectangular pieces of plastic. We’ve spent the past decade delivering new customers to our merchants through mobile payments. Now that mobile payments have overtaken credit cards globally, merchant acceptance has moved from a competitive advantage to a strategic imperative.”

 The Commonwealth of Dominica has topped the chart with the best citizenship by investment (CBI) programme in the world for the fifth consecutive year. This is according to the CBI Index, an annual report published by the Financial Times' Professional Wealth Management magazine.

The study measures the performance and appeal of 14 CBI programmes across various indicators it calls 'pillars'. Dominica attained maximum points in six out of the nine 'pillars': Minimum Investment Outlay, Mandatory Travel or Residence, Ease of Processing, Due Diligence, Family, and Certainty of Product.

"For Dominica, first place has been a consistent result for five consecutive years. Maintaining a perfect score in six out of the nine pillars assessed, Dominica once again promises, among other things, an affordable minimum investment outlay, a streamlined application process, and certainty to investors," the report read.

Due to the transparency and prominence of the Dominica CBI Programme, Dominica was the only country that achieved a full score in the Certainty of Product pillar. "At 28 years old and with a track record of good governance, the Dominica CBI Programme has led the way in providing clarity as to how CBI funds are used," the researcher noted. It added that the country "used CBI revenues to successfully mitigate the effects of national disasters."

Ambassador Emmanuel Nanthan, the Head of the Citizenship by Investment Unit (CBIU) in Dominica, commented, "It is of great honour to see that Dominica came out on top once again. Of course, it is not a surprise to us as we lead and set the example for excellence in the investment immigration industry. It was good to see the reward for it."

In terms of the global mobility afforded to Dominican citizens, the report noted that "Dominica was the Caribbean nation with the greatest increase in its visa-free and visa-on-arrival offering for the second year in a row." Applicants and their family members who successfully pass all security checks and obtain citizenship of Dominica can travel to over 75 percent of the world.

Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said: "Those who become Dominican citizens are considered a part of our family. They help build our roads, hospitals and schools through your investment in our CBI Programme."

Dominica established its CBI Programme in 1993. With a minimum contribution of USD 100,000 to the Economic Diversification Fund, reputable foreign investors can apply through an Authorised Agent listed on the CBIU site and attain second citizenship of Dominica without being subject to travel or residence requirements, often within three months of application submission. Applicants can also choose to apply through the real estate route, by investing in Government-approved eco-luxury properties like the Marriot, Hilton, or Kempinski or a boutique resort like the award-winning Jungle Bay or Secret Bay.

Fintech platform achieves three-year revenue growth of 163%

Today Fund That Flip announced it was named to Inc. magazine’s annual Inc. 5000 list for the third year in a row, a ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing private companies. A leading residential real estate investing platform, Fund That Flip makes the listing with over 163% in revenue growth, displaying the firm’s ability to demonstrate strong growth, even during challenging times.

Launched in 2014, Fund That Flip provides short-term loans to experienced real estate redevelopers who buy and renovate residential properties. After origination, Fund That Flip offers accredited and institutional investors the opportunity to purchase fractional shares of the loan and earn a 10+% annualized yield.

Since its founding, the company has achieved exponential growth, doubling its loan origination volume and customer base each year. Fund That Flip was named #42 on Inc.’s list of fastest-growing companies in 2019, the first year it was eligible. This year’s ranking comes after considerable revenue growth following the company’s Series A raise of $11 million in growth equity from Edison Partners.

“We are incredibly honored to be named to the Inc. 5000 for the third year in a row and to have overcome many challenges that 2020 presented,” said Matt Rodak, CEO of Fund That Flip. “Our sustained growth is the result of the team’s inexhaustible dedication to superior service for our clients and stakeholders. We remain unwavering in our pursuit of delivering innovative products and services to meet the needs of residential real estate investors across the nation.”

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/inc5000. The top 500 companies are featured in the September issue of Inc., which will be available on newsstands on August 20.

“The 2021 Inc. 5000 list feels like one of the most important rosters of companies ever compiled,” says Scott Omelianuk, editor-in-chief of Inc. “Building one of the fastest-growing companies in America in any year is a remarkable achievement. Building one in the crisis we’ve lived through is just plain amazing. This kind of accomplishment comes with hard work, smart pivots, great leadership, and the help of a whole lot of people.”