Blockchain Startups Have an Exciting Future

What awaits blockchain startups?

While the cryptocommunity is busy worrying over the cryptocurrency market crash and another Bitcoin price drop, the ICO market … keeps growing.

From Medium by Alex Stargame August 21, 2018

2018 has become a record year in terms of the volume of ICO investments. According to a report by ICOrating, the ICO market has almost doubled in the last few years. What is more important is that this is happening against the background of depressing statistics of failing startups and cryptocurrencies being traded on stock exchanges, but not backed by working products.

In total, the ICOs of 2018 have already attracted about $11,7 billion of investment, which is 10 times more than the funds raised by ICOs for the first half of 2017.

Jeffrey Tucker, the editorial director of the American Institute for Economic Research, considers that, despite the considerable number of unsuccessful projects, the ICO market is fine:

“It does not look like a dead market to me. It’s true, half of new ICOs could not collect more than $100 thousand in the second quarter. But it speaks about the decrease in the quality of listings. For those who observed this sector for several years, there is nothing surprising in it. The market with no entry barriers will attract … well, practically everybody”, — Jeffrey Tucker states.

The appearance of a considerable quantity of insitutional investors is a distinctive feature of the ICO market in 2018. In 2018, the first national cryptocurrency has been launched and large companies have started to invest in blockchain projects.

The number of projects raising funds through an ICO has increased by 11 %, however, less than half of them have managed to conduct a successful crowdfunding campaign.

In comparison with the ICO boom of 2017, the average duration of a crowdfunding campaign has grown and now equals approximately 63 days. Only three projects in 2018 managed to finish their campaigns within one day.

Actually, now many analysts look at the ICO market much more optimistically than even three months ago. At the beginning of the year investors became much more cautious investing in ICOs, and even three months ago it was possible for projects to attract investments only through private token sales (according to ICOrating, the average number of investors per token in 2018 is only 7,871).

Despite the toughening of requirements for ICOs, more than half of startups are still launched in North America. The second place is taken by Singapore, then Great Britain and Switzerland. This, despite the growth of interest to cryptocurrencies in developing countries like Venezuela and Turkey.

Jeffrey Tucker thinks that the investors’ pessimism is connected with the fact that the community, which developed in 2017, has got used to gaining fast and big profits from ICO projects. But the market of venture investments does not work so quickly. And it is O.K. if a project does not bring profit during the first half of the year.

A curious tendency — 2018 has become a boom for games on blockchain. I don’t mean only the traditional “collection” projects like CryptoKitties, but also indie- and video games, where developers have started to introduce blockchain technologies. Let alone a considerable quantity of game platforms and casinos on blockchain.

As computer games are one of the most rapidly developing and promising spheres, we can hope for a new boom of blockchain startups and the growth of investors’ interest to ICOs.

Source: https://cryptocurrencyhub.io/what-awaits-blockchain-startups-b242295aa42d

Canadian Cannabis Startups Receiving Investments

Canadian Cannabis Accelerator to Invest $1.5 Million in Startups

International Cannabis Business Conference
By Anthony Johnson on August 23, 2018

Overall, the legal cannabis industry is booming with record revenue levels across the board, even with a few hiccups (ahem, California) along the way. However, the super competitive marijuana market and rampant over regulation (that will hopefully lessen over time) mandates the need for capital to survive, expand, and thrive in the industry.

With Canada gearing up for legalization across the country on October 17th, cannabis accelerator Leaf Forward will be making another round of investments in startups, totaling $1.5 million according to their press release published by New Cannabis Ventures:

Leaf Forward, Canada’s first and leading cannabis business accelerator, is pleased to announce it is now accepting applications to its Toronto based, 12-week accelerator program for early stage cannabis companies. Successful applicants will receive a $35,000 cash investment and $15,000 worth of programming and services. The first cohort will fund 4-6 companies and will be offered up to three times annually.
Investments will be made from the Leaf Forward Accelerator Fund (“Accelerator Fund”), which received a $500,000 lead investment from Green Acre Capital, the leading Canadian cannabis venture fund.
During each 12-week accelerator cohort, a small group of carefully selected cannabis startups work closely with the Leaf Forward team, industry leaders, and subject matter experts to develop their products, grow their businesses, and prepare to raise their next round of funding.
Leaf Forward has supported 50 entrepreneurs over the past year, our 12-week program equips cannabis startups with the tools, connections, and knowledge they need to succeed. With Leaf Forward’s inaugural Accelerator Fund we can now provide early stage companies with capital, in addition to our leading programing and outstanding mentor network.

One of the highlights of the International Cannabis Business Conference‘s history was hosting the Canopy Rivers‘ pitch event that awarded a million dollar investment opportunity to the upstart Bella Vista Cannabis company. The ICBC is now hosting its own Mom and Pop Pitch Event give local Oregon businesses the chance to pitch their business to a room of investors and entrepreneurs at the upcoming Portland conference this September 27th-28th, with one craft cannabis company walking away with $10,000 from the ICBC, no strings attached. (If you know of a deserving Oregon company, please urge them to apply.)

We’ve already seen a massive shift in investors’ mindsets towards cannabis, so we can expect to see more investors of all stripes jumping in to take advantage of a burgeoning sector, that despite all of its difficulties, is still poised for huge growth. If you already have a cannabis business, an idea for one, or maybe an ancillary company, there has never been a better time to seek out investors. While most of the big financial news seems to be coming out of Canada, reverse mergers with Canadian companies provide an opportunity for U.S. entrepreneurs as well, a topic the Portland ICBC will cover. There are many obstacles to succeeding in the cannabis industry, but the bold are often the ones rewarded.

Source:
https://internationalcbc.com/canadian-cannabis-accelerator-to-invest-1-5-million-in-startups/

Startups on Blockchain are the Next Big Thing

Six Reasons Why Startups on Blockchain is the Next Big Thing

August 22, 2018

Looking for an industry with an untapped potential on blockchain? It might be closer than you think.

Helping startups grow is a large global market. It is called crowdfunding: entrepreneurs raise funds by pre-selling their future product. If the idea is cool and resonates with the public, the authors collect enough funds to launch the product. However, it is still severely under served and is confined by embarrassing & archaic restrictions.

A crowdfunding platform that kicked off back in 2012, Boomstarter.Network is now aiming to disrupt this market with blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, and even mining tools. Boomstarter has already garnered investment from a hedge fund that earlier bought Telegram and Dropbox. The fintech team is leveraging the emerging technology to break the geographical limits and remove intermediaries.

We’ve put together important data points to explore how this bold plan just might work and gain value for startups and investors alike. Let’s roll!

Size of crowdfunding market is huge

There are millions of current and potential entrepreneurs in the world willing to make their dreams true by validating their idea through pre-sale. If the product is great, the pre-sale will bring funds to develop the product. The current total volume of crowdfunding exceeds 6.5 billion dollars.

Global crowdfunding is ripe for disruption

Crowdfunding was growing rapidly: in 2017 it increased by 49% globally. However, projections for the following years show a steady slowdown. Obviously, the expected decline is due to a number of limiting factors. The demand from startups cannot be satisfied with the traditional platforms which are infamous for geographical restrictions and slow transactions.

Erasing geographical limits will skyrocket market growth

Existing crowdfunding platforms are estimated to be serving a mere one-third of the world’s startups. One of the busiest platforms, Kickstarter, only allows entrepreneurs from 22 industrialized countries. With cryptocurrencies, crowdfunding will be effective, quick and borderless. This will surge demand and participation by startups from all over the world.

Removing intermediaries will help startups thrive 

A dreaded meltdown factor of the existing crowdfunding world is waiting time for startups to receive the money from their backers. Startups wait for weeks and often cannot get the funds in time to begin developing their product according to their plan. It happens over and over again because the current system is overly dependent on third parties like banks or payment systems.

Using blockchain, smart contracts and crypto act as a medium for startups and backers to interact will reduce transaction time to minutes and guarantee payments with no intermediaries involved.

Crypto-mining as a tool driving engagement

While introducing an all-crypto platform, Boomstarter.Network says it has a plan for those who are not yet into digital currencies. The fintech company claims to offer tools to contribute cryptocurrencies to the projects by interested sponsors. The idea is to unite supporters of a given startup in a cloud-mining pool so that the amount of crypto they generate all together becomes substantial.

This is a pioneering non-material way to support startups, solving the common issue when people don’t buy, but only repost a startup’s offer on their social media. For startups, it is an interesting tool for building an active and motivated community. 

Good competition to disrupt the market with blockchain

There are other teams out there that aim to address the grievances of this expanding market. However, none of them have shown an integrated solution which also takes care of the vast audiences that have not yet embraced crypto.

With this in mind, Boomstarter.Network seems uniquely positioned to garner a big share of the global market just waiting to be disrupted. The company’s token, designed to be used as a means of payment on the platform, performs as a practical representation of value. It will be deployed to build real businesses that serve real purposes.

By providing universally accessible tools to help startups grow wherever they are, it is possible to boost demand and traction for wider adoption. This will bring positive movement to the token’s price, drawing in more entrepreneurs, supporters, and investors.

Source: https://ambcrypto.com/six-reasons-why-startups-on-blockchain-is-the-next-big-thing/

Private equity giant Leonard Green takes another chance on retail, buying hot online retailer Shade Store for $325 million

Terms were not announced, but CNBC has learned the deal is worth $325 million.

• Private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners is acquiring customized treatment company The Shade Store.
• Terms were not announced, but CNBC has learned the deal is worth $325 million.
• The Shade Store sells its custom-made window treatments online and in 60 showrooms across the country.
• The Shade Store start out in 2006 as a website.

Lauren Hirsch 9 Aug 2018

Private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners announced plans Thursday to acquire The Shade Store, a customized window treatment company.

The deal was valued at about $325 million, sources familiar with the situation told CNBC, which first reported the deal. The sources requested anonymity because the terms are confidential.

The acquisition highlights the opportunity private equity firms continue to see in niche retailers that marry online and offline businesses, despite the challenges the retail industry has seen over the past several years. For Leonard Green, it marks a shift in strategy away from its larger retail bets in recent years, like J.Crew, David's Bridal and BJ's Wholesale Club. Many private equity firms with retail expertise have shifted their focus away from large retailers with expansive real estate, as they look instead toward smaller brands with more runway.

The Shade Store sells its window products online and in 60 showrooms across the country.

It started in 2006 as a website that offered customized window treatments. Two years later, it launched showrooms in New York and San Francisco to promote its products and allow customers see them in person.

Many online retailers, including Bonobos and Warby Parker, have opened brick-and-mortar stores in recent years, because the market for digital shopping has become flooded and the cost to compete for online eyeballs has risen.

The Shade Store sold to private equity firm Great Hill Partners in 2013. Great Hill's investments have included online brands like home furnishings company Wayfair and vitamin and supplement seller Vitacost.

Under Great Hill, the drapery retailer built out showrooms across the East Coast and on the West Coast, the Northwest and states including Arizona, Ohio and Illinois. It often places those showrooms in clusters, to appeal to shoppers whose interest may be piqued by driving past one, but who may not be quite ready to buy drapes.

Its shoppers spend on average $2,800 in showrooms and $1,000 online. Its products includes shades, drapery and blinds, which it customizes with designer materials, trims and decorative borders. It offers installation and free shipping.

Under Leonard Green's ownership, the company expects to continue to expand its footprint across the U.S. The customized window treatment business remains highly fragmented, dominated by mom-and-pop offerings.

It may also go further into private label, having already signed a partnership with RH, the home furnishings company formerly known as Restoration Hardware. It will also look to increase its sales to hotel chains, restaurants, gyms or other businesses.

Article Source: CNBC

Blockchain Startup Brings in $5.5 Million in Startup Funding

Blockchain Music Startup Raises $5.5 Million in Series A Funding

August 12, 2018
https://www.ccn.com/blockchain-music-startup-raises-5-5-million-in-series-a-funding/

Blockchain startup, Audius, a decentralised, community-owned music sharing platform billed as the blockchain’s answer to Soundcloud has announced the successful completion of a $5.5 million Series A funding round as it launches the world’s first ever blockchain-based music sharing protocol. Made on August 8, 2018, the announcement revealed that the funding round was led by General Catalyst and Lightspeed, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Pantera Capital, 122West and Ascolta Ventures.

Blockchain Startup Disrupts Traditional Music-Sharing Model

Audius describes itself as “a blockchain-based alternative to SoundCloud to help artists connect directly with fans and monetize their work.”  According to its developers, its protocol exists in perpetuity, owned and controlled by a decentralized community of artists, music lovers and developers.

The platform aims to disrupt the traditional music-sharing service model which some criticize for a perceived lack of artist control and transparency. Founder Ranidu Lankage is a Sri Lankan pop artist who is best known for going platinum at 19 with ‘Oba Magemai’, a Sinhalese hip-hop single credited with bringing in a new age of Sinhalese pop music. Following the release of his commercially successful debut album under Sony Records, he chose to go independent so as to maintain control over his work.

As part of his mission to solidify artist control over creative content, Ranidu and fellow cofounders Roneil Rumburg and Forrest Browning decided that blockchain technology had the power to give back control and creative power to artists by fixing the centralization and transparency problem. Audius was the result of this endeavor, and in between working to help artists with technology, Ranidu still finds time for the occasional performance at international events like Coachella and Ultra.

Audius Success Stories

One of the best known success stories spawned by Audius is Electronic Dance Music (EDM) artist 3LAU, who is famous in equal measure for his crytocurrency knowledge and his music. Speaking recently about his thoughts on Audius, he said:

“Artists need decentralized models for music sharing, and a stake in the platforms they contribute content to. Blockchain allows Audius to do this with tokens and decentralized voting-based governance so artists have a say in how the platform evolves. It’s a very elegant model and one which, as an artist, I find immensely attractive.”

Using Audius, artists can connect directly with fans and distribute content to them without the involvement of a middleman. Like SoundCloud, they are able to build, nurture, and engage with their fan base on the platform, but with the key difference being that their accounts are preserved permanently on a blockchain with no risk of a third party shutdown. The platform also gives artists full insight into who is streaming their content, where, and when, all in the midst of transparent, real-time payment.

Audius currently has an advisory team made up of Augur cofounder Jeremy Gardner, EDM superstar 3LAU, Pantera Capital Partner Paul Veradittakit, EA founder Bing Gordon and BitTorrent chief architect Greg Hazel.

August 12, 2018
https://www.ccn.com/blockchain-music-startup-raises-5-5-million-in-series-a-funding/

Startups celebrate as funding boom returns

Starting with the Flipkart-Walmart deal, 2018 is turning out to be the best ever for startups in attracting capital since the funding boom on 2014-15

Mihir Dalal & Anirban Sen from LiveMint.com  August 6, 2018

Caption:

At least 12 mega funding rounds are in the works at Oyo, Byju’s, Swiggy, Zomato, ShareChat and BigBasket. Graphic: Mint

Bengaluru: Startups have been raising multiple rounds of capital in quick succession at increasingly higher valuations. Investors are chasing startups that don’t generate any revenue—at least not yet—and market share is the preferred investment metric, not unit economics. Is another hyper-funding wave around the corner for startups?

Increasingly, this year is resembling 2014, when a handful of relatively mature startups raised huge sums. That year was followed by a broader hyper-funding wave in 2015 when it seemed that all you needed to raise cash was a degree from a top engineering college and the word “hyperlocal”, which was the flavour of the day then, in your investor pitch.

Investors have already struck 18 deals of $100 million or more this year compared with 22 last year, according to Tracxn data. At least a dozen more such deals including mega funding rounds at Oyo, Byju’s, Swiggy and Zomato, ShareChat, BigBasket and others are in the works, according to previous reports in Mint. Factor in the $16 billion sale of Flipkart to Walmart and it’s clear that this will be the best-ever year for startups in terms of attracting capital, a stark contrast to the weak investment activity in the last two years.

The jury is out on whether this bumper year will be followed by an investment frenzy similar to that of 2015.

But there are some early signs. startups such as Swiggy, Zomato and CureFit are attracting large rounds of cash in quick succession and at soaring valuations. Investors are chasing content startups that have no business model in sight. And, in some sectors such as food ordering, startups are spending wantonly on discounts, advertising and free product deliveries, though still not at the levels seen in 2015.

“While the ecosystem of companies has grown, the number of quality startups in the later stages has not grown at the same pace,” said Sharad Sharma, an angel investor and co-founder of iSpirt, an industry group for software products startups. “As a result, investors have fewer mid- to late-stage companies to back and double down on. Other than the category leaders, the ones that have just managed to survive but haven’t really taken off in a big way are also getting funded in the current wave. So, in mid- to late-stage deals, we’re definitely starting to see the beginning of a bubble.”

Mint had reported on 20 March that start-up funding may bounce back this year.

To be sure, it’s not clear if investor enthusiasm for mature internet companies will trickle down to early-stage startups. Funding for early-stage startups is at its lowest in four years, Tracxn data shows. And many investors have raised concerns about the low rate of new start-up formation.

Some investors said VCs and startups had learned from their mistakes in 2014-15 and it is unlikely that a bubble-type scenario would be repeated this time.

“The environment is very different from (that in) 2014-15,” said Ritesh Banglani, partner, Stellaris Venture Partners. “First, there is clear evidence of exitability of Indian internet companies. Second, companies that are raising large rounds are mostly market leaders who have proven the benefits of scale. Third, companies like Swiggy and Zomato that are raising big rounds have demonstrated good unit economics. So, most growth-stage funding is going towards building scale rather than proving business models, which was the case in 2014-15.”

Dev Khare, partner at Lightspeed India, agreed, saying that unlike 2014-15, VCs haven’t poured excessive funds in early-stage companies and neither have late-stage funds made bets on early-stage companies.

“Many investors had come in earlier during 2014-15 than they otherwise would, and a lot of sectors got overfunded,” Khare said. “Now, the market has matured and you’re seeing one or two winners emerge in several sectors. In India, capital accumulates around the winners pretty quickly, so I would expect more sectors to get funded in the growth rounds than in 2014-15.”

In the 2014-15 startup investment boom, Tiger Global made a series of early-stage bets, a move that gave rise to the term, Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), among other investors, who followed Tiger Global’s lead. Both Khare and Banglani said that so far, the FOMO factor isn’t at play. (While Tiger Global has stepped up its investment pace over the past nine months, it is avoiding early-stage firms). “What I would see as a sign of froth would be if international investors were coming in during A rounds and signing $10 million cheques and investing in seven-eight companies in each sector. I don’t see that happening right now,” said Khare.

Source:

https://www.livemint.com/Companies/AwQXjpeeSI1A5BALJb7s6H/Startups-celebrate-as-funding-boom-returns.html