Music courtesy of BlackIrisFilms.com

Andy Pickering – Host

Welcome to Unleashed with the Dacxi Chain, a Dacxi podcast where we learn all about the Dacxi Chain and the incredible opportunities it unlocks. Great show lined up today. Are you ready to invest in the future of investing? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s get into it. Since our last podcast, folks, a lot has happened in the world of the Dacxi Chain. We’ve had the announcement of the first deal go through and to everyone’s surprise, the first deal is Dacxi Chain, and I say that this was a surprise, but it also makes a great deal of sense. We’ll go over that today. 

We’ve also learned who Dacxi Chain’s first three partner crowdfunding platforms are going to be. That is Equitise in Australia, Snowball Effect in New Zealand, and now Angels Den in Europe. We’ll learn all about that today as well. To do this we are, of course, joined again by Dacxi Chain CEO, Mr. Ian Lowe. Hello, Ian. 

Ian Lowe – Guest

How are you, Andy? 

Andy Pickering – Host

I’m very well. So well, Ian, that I think we’ll just get straight into the good stuff. But for new listeners, can you briefly please explain the Dacxi Chain vision at a very high level? 

Ian Lowe – Guest

Yeah, I’d be glad to. So the vision is very simple. We see a future where everyday investors have access to privately held growth companies that are looking for investment so they can grow their businesses. And we see that future becoming so significant that it really redraws the lines of the innovation economy. So if we look at equity crowdfunding today, which is what we’re talking about, that is everyday investors having access to high-growth return investment opportunities. That represents less than 1% of the venture economy, and that is all of the money that’s put into growth businesses around the world. So less than 1% and our vision is a future where it’s a very significant percentage and potentially even the majority of investment that flows through to high growth companies is coming through from that crowd of everyday investors. 

Andy Pickering – Host

I mentioned, Ian, that last month in a surprise twist, you announced that the first Dacxi Chain deal is a deal to effectively crowdfund the Dacxi Chain platform itself. I was watching the webinar along with the rest of the Dacxi Chain community. And when you made this announcement, the chat box was popping off with messages left and right, as the community reacted to the announcement. What I was impressed by, Ian, is the support and positivity from the community as you explained the thinking behind the decision. But I think it’d be useful again for the benefit of the community, and new listeners, to hear it again. Why is the first deal Dacxi? What motivated the decision to crowdfund Dacxi? 

Ian Lowe – Guest

Look, it’s a good question and I’ve spent a little bit of time helping people understand how we reached this conclusion. So you can understand we’ve been thinking about and planning for the first deal that goes through this network of foundation partners, and I’ll talk about them more in a moment. This first deal that goes through our network of foundation partners, what is that first deal going to be? And we looked at this from a couple of different angles, but perhaps the analogy that I can use is one that I’ve used previously that I think resonates. So it’s like we did the work and reached the conclusion that we can fly to the moon. So then we went out and we built a spaceship to be able to achieve that. 

So who’s going to jump in the spaceship and do the first mission? Who’s going to do that? And we thought it was just really sensible and in many ways appropriate that the first company to raise funds through this technology that we’ve created is ourselves, put ourselves in the pilot seat on the first mission, if you like. There are likely going to be some rough edges on the first deal and possibly the first couple of deals, right? This has never been done before. We are pioneering this. It’s our vision. We have gone out and built the technology. It’s taken a long period of time, certainly longer than many of us expected, but there’s going to be some rough edges. 

And so we looked at this and we thought, look, if we can actually participate not just as the technology provider, but as the issuer that is actually raising the capital as well, it gives us another perspective on what the technology is doing and ways that we believe we can improve the functionality within the technology in the future. So it accelerates our understanding of the types of things that would improve this experience for the partners, for the investors, and for the early-stage business that is looking for funding. So when we look at that in combination with this slightly more philosophical view of saying, we’ve built the spaceship, let’s make sure that we’re the ones that are flying the first mission. 

For us, it became a sensible decision to put ourselves in the frame and put ourselves on the line and say, right, we’re going to do the first capital raising for ourselves through this network that we’ve created. 

Andy Pickering – Host

Yeah, got it, I love the spaceship analogy. And I think you used a term during the webinar, eating your own dog food, right? So it’s a common saying, it’s a bit of a funny one, but I think what you mean is it’s all about making sure that we understand where those rough edges lie so that you can refine the process and ensure the robustness of the platform. And so it makes sense for Dacxi to be the first deal. 

Ian Lowe – Guest

It does. And look, I’ve been doing this kind of thing for 25 years, that is building and managing global technology companies and I’ve learned this lesson a long time ago, which is that it takes multiple iterations, it takes longer than you’d like. You need to have high quality relationships with all of the critical partners and you’re not going to build Rome in a day. And so we’ve got a very clearly staged rollout of the end game, so that we’re lowering our risk, but also making sure that we’re taking our partners on a journey with us. So this is a business opportunity that’s critically reliant on our partners and their participation and their understanding of the vision. 

And I think we’ve been relentlessly honest with them about this being a staged process rather than an all singing, all dancing solution that’s just suddenly available tomorrow, whereas yesterday it didn’t exist. It simply doesn’t work that way. So this is absolutely the right approach for everybody, not just for Dacxi Chain. 

Andy Pickering – Host

Yes, I very much agree. So you’ve mentioned those partnerships, Equitise in Australia, Snowball Effect in New Zealand, and now the new platform partner, Angels Den in Europe. What’s interesting about these partnerships, Ian, and look, you can speak to this, but it’s a unique position that Dacxi Chain is forging in the equity crowdfunding space. And when we use the term partners, it means that all these other equity crowdfunding platforms around the world, they’re not really in competition at all with Dacxi Chain. They really are partners and they have everything to gain from working with Dacxi Chain and it brings a lot more people to the table all around the world. I’d like to hear your thoughts on this. 

Ian Lowe – Guest

I’d be pleased to. So let me talk about the three foundation partners that we’ve mentioned and then talk about the partnership dynamic more generally. So I’ve personally spoken to a number of equity crowdfunding platform providers but we always wanted to very carefully select a small number of foundation partners. We didn’t want to open that opportunity up to all of the equity crowdfunding platforms that we’ve spoken to. So over a period of some time now, we’ve gone out and validated the vision, validated the key principles embodied in the technology that is the instrument to globalize equity crowdfunding. And we’ve done all that validation work. But what we were looking for was a particular type of equity crowdfunding partner. And they needed to meet some strict criteria. 

And I won’t go through that in detail, but essentially they needed to be established with a good market reputation, and a good number of deals under their belt of various sizes, not just small and not just large. And they needed to be committed to this idea of innovating, doing things a bit differently, and finding new ways to get great outcomes. So there was a criteria that we set for ourselves and we identified that we also ideally wanted a minimum of two different geographies for the first deal as a really important proof point. And we looked at them, we thought, look, ideally we’d be able to have a sort of a triangulation of geographies. We’d have three. So we set about very carefully approaching and talking to a very small number of potential partners. And we call these our foundation partners. 

So they’re different from the next wave of partners who will come in to join a network that already exists, with a technology that’s already proven, with real investors and a real deal and a real outcome. Okay, but the foundation partners, it’s a slightly different conversation, it’s the same philosophical framework, it’s the same technical discussion, but it’s really about saying you have a seat at our table to help us test some of the thinking, to help us scrutinize what the technology is doing. And it’s a much more collaborative, as you would expect, a much more collaborative dynamic. So we were very lucky to be able to secure those three partners. They’re outstanding organizations, they’re run by outstanding people. 

I’ve had the good fortune to communicate very closely and more frequently as we go with each of their CEOs and they’re very high quality people. So we’re super excited about that part of where we are today. But just in terms of going out and talking to potential partners more generally, I think there’s a couple of really important points and you touched on one of them, which is that Dacxi Chain is a non disruptive proposition. Okay? In the world of innovation, there’s a lot of hoopla and a lot of song and dance made around this idea of disruption. And really what that refers to is a well established and probably very mature industry that’s already huge and has massive market share either in its own right or as part of a broader ecosystem. 

And the market share that’s enjoyed by the dominant players in that industry or that sector is equally very well established, okay? And then of course, somebody comes in to blow all that up and come up with a new model or a new approach and that’s called disruption. And there are investors, including venture capitalists or VCs, but also private equity, because you’re dealing with larger, more mature businesses who find that concept of disruption enormously attractive because it’s a whole new approach to an established market. Equity crowdfunding is at a very different stage. It’s still finding its feet and so it’s growing. And it’s growing consistently over the last few years. And that growth is accelerating, particularly if we look at it in aggregate over a five-year block. It’s accelerating, but it still remains a reasonably nascent industry. 

And by nascent we simply mean it’s still relatively new. The size of the crowds that are investing through the different platforms that are established around the world is still not in the hundreds and hundreds of thousands. It’s in the thousands or the tens of thousands typically. And there is not a dominant market share that’s enjoyed across any number of multiple markets by one or two or three players. There are some larger players in key markets than others, but it’s still a fragmented space. So we come into this market with a mindset that says, look, this is not about disruption. We’re not disrupting a whole bunch of really mature businesses that have dominant market share. Our job is to empower that industry to thrive. We’re not in competition with them. It’s quite the opposite. 

Our role is to empower them to thrive. And the way that we do that through Dacxi Chain is very simply we create this network effect by allowing licensed equity crowdfunding platforms that already exist today to plug into our infrastructure, share deals not just with their own crowd on their own platform, but to share those deals, those investing opportunities with the crowds on all of the other platforms that are plugged into our infrastructure. And by virtue of doing that, we go from being a local proposition to becoming a global proposition, but with this really important dimension called decentralization. And what that means is people do not come to Dacxi Chain to see those deals. That catalog of global deals is now being made available on every local platform that is plugged into our infrastructure. 

So we are taking global equity crowdfunding, local equity crowdfunding at the local market level and we are empowering them to become global by publishing a global catalog of investment opportunities sourced from other partners in our network. At the same time we’re empowering their deals to be seen by crowds on other platforms to reshape the size of the investment or capital that’s available through our network. Once you get to that kind of conversation with a potential partner, the conversation very quickly turns. You know, and I’ve heard the expression so many times from the companies that we’ve spoken to, “this is a no brainer, Ian.” So what’s the catch? Do we have to write you a big check? How do we get involved? And the answer to that is, look, there is no catch. You don’t pay for access. 

You don’t pay us a monthly fee. There is no subscription cost, there is no licensing fee. You don’t pay support fees. It’s completely frictionless to plug into the infrastructure. We take a small fee only when deals are submitted and deals are funded. Okay? So in other words, everything is incremental upside. So if you’re a partner participating in Dacxi Chain, you suddenly have access to much more capital. And it’s only the capital that you can access through other platforms and the investment that’s raised through those other platforms that you pay this small fee to Dacxi Chain for. If you don’t generate that additional investment, you don’t pay anything. If you do generate additional investment, well, you might pay us a small fee, but not only is it a small fee, but it’s all on investment that you previously would never have had access to. Okay? 

So it truly is a win-win, especially if you also think of the issuers who, by virtue of this, now have access to more capital and faster capital. But these are the sorts of things that get talked about when we’re first approaching, in our case, the foundation partners. And you can see it doesn’t take much to imagine that this is a very attractive proposition if you’re an equity crowdfunding platform because your business is almost entirely local. Local companies, local investors, and local regulations. And Dacxi Chain allows them to think and become global without actually having to reimagine and refund their business by going and setting up in multiple jurisdictions. 

Andy Pickering – Host

Very, very well said, Ian. And look, listeners, that’s why it is important for you, depending on where you live, to take a look at one of these three initial partner platforms. I’ll put a link in the show notes, but if you’re based in New Zealand or Australia or Europe, you’ll be able to sign up and join one of these platforms and start to see the deals come through. 

One of the terms that I’ve seen being used around the Dacxi Chain office, Ian, is the term “invest in the future of investing”, which I think is a brilliant tagline. It is simple, direct, and aspirational. Invest in the future of investing. That sounds pretty enticing to me and pretty well suited for Dacxi Chain? 

Ian Lowe – Guest

Look, I think it really captures the spirit of what we’re doing here. There’s a couple of different ways to think about it. One is that we’re really democratizing investing for everyday investors, giving a much larger crowd access to many more investment opportunities and doing that in a distributed fashion by exposing that into the platforms that already exist all around the world. So that’s one way of looking at it. Investing in the future of investing is simply saying, we believe that equity crowdfunding is the mechanism that will redraw the lines of the global innovation economy. But it needs to become global. It needs genuine scale on the supply and demand sides. 

And our infrastructure empowers today’s equity crowdfunding platforms to achieve that scale without having to go out and invest anything incrementally to grow the size of the opportunity for themselves. So investing in the future of investing, I think is a great way to capture all of those. 

Andy Pickering – Host

I couldn’t agree more. Just briefly again on the founders, the CEOs, the people running those different platforms that we’ve talked about, Ian, so you said that they’re really excited by the promise and potential of where Dacxi Chain can take this global vision of equity crowdfunding. Are they surprised that Dacxi Chain has come out of nowhere with this incredible vision and of course the technology to back it up, to really unlock this potential global pool of innovators and investors link and it all up through these local platforms. It’s such an ambitious plan with huge global scope. No one’s ever tried anything like this before, but obviously the people that are running these existing platforms, they’re genuinely excited by the promise and potential of what Dacxi Chain can offer? 

Ian Lowe – Guest

I don’t think there’s any question about that or they just simply wouldn’t be involved. And they see how this can directly benefit their own business, not just now, but in the future where we have a much larger ecosystem of supply companies looking for investment and demand investors looking for great companies to invest in. But look, this is a pretty high quality conversation with these equity crowdfunding platforms and it goes along the following lines, we explain the vision and we explain the underlying concept and what the technology does. And like I said earlier, well, it’s a no brainer, but wait a minute, what about this? And so we go, yeah, good question, and we answer that, well, what about the business model? And we’re able to articulate that. Well, what about the API frameworks you’re going to need to make this work? 

Well, we can show them that it’s all fully documented. Oh, right, okay. What about the regulatory frameworks? Have you thought about that? Well, yes, we have and here again is how we manage that. So by the time you end up going through all of those things, we’re a really credible source of growth for these companies because they can see that we’ve thought about it and it’s taken a fair bit of time to actually go through all of that. Not just to think about it, but to consider different ways of solving lots of different problems and documenting all of that, going out and building prototypes and then getting to this minimum viable product that actually proves the whole concept. So by the time you get through the conversation, we’ve answered all of their headline questions. 

I think that’s the point where universally we’ve seen equity crowdfunding platforms say, gosh, this is incredibly interesting and a completely different way for us to think about our own business in partnership with Dacxi Chain. 

Andy Pickering – Host

Very much so. All right, so we’ve talked about these partner platforms, Ian, let’s just bring it back again to, I suppose the core proposition of equity crowdfunding. Just for the benefit of new listeners who are listening, perhaps for the benefit of potential investors or for perhaps people that are running small businesses or a little startup. They’re trying to do something new. They’ve got an innovative idea they’d like to try and bring to the market, but they need some funding, they need to get it off the ground. Again, just explain the advantages of equity crowdfunding from those perspectives, I suppose, both for the businesses one hand and the investors on the other. Those are the two groups, of course. 

Ian Lowe – Guest

Yes, certainly. So look, let’s start with what we call the issuer. And the issuer just simply means the company that is looking to raise capital. And they’re called the issuer because they have to issue shares in their business in return for the capital they take from investors. So look, from their perspective, equity crowdfunding is fundamentally attractive for a few very important reasons. The first is that for most, but not all, but for most growth companies, it beats the alternative. Okay? And the alternative is going to venture capital and doing a deal with one very significant investor.

They’re very good at engaging with high growth companies that look really attractive and have a very bright future and getting terms that are really favorable to the venture capitalists. I mean, that’s what they do and they’re very good at it. So if you’re looking for a path to growth capital as an entrepreneur, VCs are a very proven source. But those deals are usually onerous for the entrepreneur. That’s the first thing. The second thing is that access to that capital is highly competitive. So because VCs represent the significant majority of investing that goes into early stage companies around the world today, they really have the sway, they have the control. So if you go to talk to a VC, you are talking their language in their time frame, on their terms by definition. 

And equally, what we know is that VC capital, whilst there’s hundreds of firms around the world that are VCs, they all aggregate or roll up into a surprisingly small number of VCs that underpin the entire ecosystem. And these are in an even smaller number of geographies, right? There’s Silicon Valley, there’s New York. There’s one or two other locations in the US. But outside of that, there’s probably only three or four really well established geographies or cities that you need to be in to raise the capital from VCs in any kind of efficient or successful way. So it means that all of the innovation that’s going on in the world today, where they’re either not based in those locations or they don’t have ready access and easy access to those locations, makes it incredibly difficult logistically. 

So there are all sorts of reasons why VC money is hard to get hold of. It’s a competitive dynamic where the VCs are talking to 100 different companies at one time, but then equally, the deals that they do are typically very onerous on the entrepreneur or the issuer. So this is where crowdfunding comes in. It says, well look, what about if we had, instead of one very large investor to give you the growth capital you need, what if we had lots and lots of really small investors? And for growth companies, this can appeal on a number of different levels. 

First of all, they’re much more in control of the process, the actual capital raising process, it’s entirely borderless, so it’s done on a platform, which means that I don’t have to be in a certain city talking to certain people in order to get that deal done. It can all be done through a platform and I’m in control of the time frame to a very large extent. And also I might have a large community of customers or a large community of followers and I can actually get all of them involved in my equity crowdfunding round where they can demonstrate their support for the business by making a small investment. But the power lies in the number of the investors that participate, the size of the crowd. 

So these are the reasons why equity crowdfunding is an attractive path to capital. And then the final one for the issuer, and this is a very important one, is only to the extent that it’s defendable and therefore attractive to the investor. They can argue the valuation okay, whereas the VCs, they’ll start by saying, well, what do you think the company’s worth? And then they’ll come up with a number that’s a fraction of that, and that’s sort of the discussion. Whereas as long as it’s defendable and as long as it remains an attractive investment opportunity in equity crowdfunding, the issuer can establish the valuation. So these are really important elements of what the entrepreneur is thinking about when it comes time to raise money. 

Andy Pickering – Host

Yes. Great points there, Ian. Thank you for sharing those perspectives. Lots to think about. But as we start to finish off today’s episode, Ian, I think it’d be good also to talk about the Dacxi Coin itself, or specifically that part of the Dacxi Chain community who are Dacxi Chain holders. I know there’s always a lot of those people in the Telegram group, for example, and in the audience for webinars and in the audience for podcasts. So, yes, special mention to those people. I guess what I’m saying, Ian, is can we just draw a distinction between those people who are holders of Dacxi Coin or potentially even looking at a Dacxi Coin purchase, versus those people who are potentially considering an investment in the equity of the Dacxi Chain network through this first initial deal? 

Ian Lowe – Guest

So it’s a really good question, a very important question. So let me start with a couple of things and then I’ll get to the answer to that question. So, first of all, Dacxi Coin is a purpose designed cryptocurrency as a transaction layer or a transaction currency that allows us to move investment from one platform to another around the world very quickly and very cheaply. Okay? So its primary use case is a transaction currency. And if you think about three foundation partners operating in three different currencies, that’s not overly complex, right? You’ve got a total of nine possible pairings. But when you start to imagine a future where we’re in 40, 50, 60, 100 countries with 50, 60, or 70 different currencies, then pairing every single conceivable currency to every other currency becomes an incredibly complicated proposition. 

And so this is really what Dacxi Coin is purpose designed to achieve, which is to move investment from any market in any currency, from a crowd in that market to the market of the issuer who’s raising the money. And of course they need that capital to be available to them in their local fiat. So that’s what Dacxi Coin achieves. We can do that through crypto rails really quickly and really cheaply. And Dacxi Coin is that transaction currency. The way to think about, and just one other point on that, which is that as we build the network after this first deal, the first deal will give us the validation point we need to very quickly start to expand the network by signing up additional partners. Now, more partners means more deals. More deals means that more Dacxi Coin is being used because there is more investment being made. 

And that’s what drives the medium to longer term value proposition for Dacxi Coin – it’s this increase in demand based on signing more partners to the network, which drives more deals. Okay, so this capital raising that we’re doing through our own network is actually really important because it creates an unambiguous proof point for the technology, for the network, and for the Dacxi Chain that allows us to rapidly expand the network, leveraging that proof point. And that in turn will drive demand for Dacxi Coin. This gets to your question around how investors should think about the distinction between owning Dacxi Coin and or participating in this equity crowdfunding round that we’ll do very shortly where they have the opportunity to acquire equity in Dacxi Chain, the business as opposed to owning Dacxi Coin.

Well, the first thing is that there should logically be a correlation in the increase of value in both Dacxi Coin and the shares of Dacxi Chain. As the Dacxi Chain business grows, it will be growing because of deal flow growth inside our network. And that in turn drives demand for the coin. But they are also two different things. So whilst we expect they will logically be correlated over a short to medium time frame versus a medium to longer time frame, that correlation at different points in time may be incredibly obvious or somewhat less obvious, and that will just depend on the growth trajectory of the underlying business itself. But what I would say is it’s really the health of the underlying business that reflects the demand for the Dacxi Coin. So it’s the underlying business and its growth that reflects or drives the demand for Dacxi Coin. 

And so, like you would expect in any equity based investment, the way that I encourage people to think about it is twofold. First, owning shares is you’re less likely to have a really short term harvest in mind if you own shares, whereas if you own Dacxi Coin, that’s always going to be an option for you because it’s traded on multiple exchanges. Okay, so it’s a slightly longer investment time frame on the shares versus the coin, depending on your objectives. 

The second thing is that because of this correlation, and because this is really the only equity crowdfunding deal we plan to offer, we’re not sitting here planning future equity crowdfunding rounds. This is it. So really what it means is if you already own Dacxi Coin and you’re looking for a way to give that Dacxi Coin the very best opportunity to grow in value, I would encourage you to take a very close look at participating, even in some small way in the Equity crowdfunding round that we’re doing. Because what a successful closing of that Equity Crowdfunding round achieves is an unambiguous validation of what we’re doing. That, in turn, allows us to accelerate the growth of the network, which will drive the value of the coin. 

So there is a symbiotic relationship here, unquestionably, between owning the Equity and participating in this round for anyone that already holds the coin. So they are in some ways a little bit different. But I think this symbiosis, as I’ve explained it, also should encourage coin holders to think about participating in the Equity crowdfunding round. 

Andy Pickering – Host

Yes, I think that’s an excellent way of explaining that. Thank you, Ian, I very much enjoyed that. I’m sure the listeners did as well. Just as we start to finish off, then, for people that are potentially interested in getting just a little piece of equity in the Dacxi Chain platform, how can they do that? What’s their best way forward? 

Ian Lowe – Guest

Certainly. So, as you’ve already mentioned, we have foundation partners in Australia, in New Zealand and also now in the UK. The best way to get involved is to simply go to those platforms and register as a user. It’s a very simple process. It’s the same as registering on any kind of wealth platform or exchange platform. It only takes a few minutes. As a registered user, you then have access to all of the deals that flow through that Equity crowdfunding platform. And of course, one of those deals will very shortly be the Dacxi Chain. So it means that you’re in position, you’ll get access to all of the information that’s shared about the business, our projections for the future, a little bit more about the underlying technology, a little bit more about our partners. All of that’s going to be made available through these platforms. 

And so if you’ve got any level of interest at all, we would encourage you now, not five minutes beforehand. Because the potential is for this round to be closed very quickly. There’s obviously a lot of interest. We would encourage people to now go to the platform that’s closest to them geographically or in their own market, register as a user, and then you’re in position to start seeing all of the information as it flows through. 

Andy Pickering – Host

Simple as that, folks. So, look, if you are interested in investing in the future of investing, just point your browser in the direction of Equitise in Australia, Snowball Effect in New Zealand, and Angels Den in Europe. But as I say, folks, I’ll put links to those platforms in the show notes to this episode. So very easy to find. Man, it’s exciting to see all of this come together. Ian, thank you so much for coming on the show again and keeping us up to date. I’m sure we’ll speak again soon, but all the best for today. Thanks and bye for now. 

https://equitise.com/

https://www.snowballeffect.co.nz/

https://www.angelsden.com/