Pendulum raises $5 million

RNS Number : 9906Q

Blue Star Capital plc

02 November 2021

 

2 November 2021

Blue Star Capital plc

("Blue Star" or the "Company")

Pendulum raises $5 million

Blue Star Capital plc (AIM: BLU), the investing company with a focus on esports, payments, technology and its applications within media and gaming, notes the announcement by SatoshiPay, one of its investee companies, earlier today.

SatoshiPay has announced that Pendulum, its smart contract network dedicated to connecting fiat payment networks to decentralised finance (DeFi) networks, has raised $5 million in an oversubscribed private sale round of its upcoming PEN token from strategic partners.   The funds raised will be used to continue the development of Pendulum.

Background to the private presale of Pendulum's PEN token

Pendulum is an open-source blockchain built on the stable and existing Substrate framework that aims to establish the missing link between fiat and the DeFi ecosystems through a sophisticated smart contract network.  It is intended that Pendulum will connect DeFi to the foreign exchange market, building automated market makers (AMMs) to introduce scalable liquidity pools for fiat currencies, and create yield earning opportunities for fiat token holders.

SatoshiPay started the development of Pendulum in April 2021 and later, in May 2021, received an R&D grant from the Stellar Development Foundation to advance its development. The first prototype of Pendulum, which features a bridge to Stellar and AMM, similar to that found in Uniswap, is now available on SatoshiPay's internal Pendulum testnet. SatoshiPay expects that the next stages of development for Pendulum will include a public testnet and mainnet, the introduction of sophisticated smart contracts to the Stellar network while simultaneously adding a set of robust fiat assets to the Polkadot/Kusama ecosystem.

Pendulum has raised $5 million for its further development by the private sale of PEN tokens. The directors of the Company have been advised that the funding allows for SatoshiPay to be contractually retained to continue to develop Pendulum.

Advantages derived by SatoshiPay from Pendulum's token sale and network launch

The board of Blue Star believes the successful token presale and future launch of the Pendulum blockchain is a critical step towards SatoshiPay commercialising its core technology, thereby creating a number of advantages for SatoshiPay and its shareholders. These include:

· Pendulum has contractually appointed SatoshiPay to build the Pendulum blockchain and this contract will be satisfied through a combination of cash and PEN tokens which will generate significant revenues for SatoshiPay for a number of years;

· Pendulum is being built around two large blockchain ecosystems, Stellar and Polkadot. As such, SatoshiPay expects to become involved in an increasing number of opportunities within the decentralised finance space, a market currently estimated at $100 billion;

· SatoshiPay expects that the revenue it derives from Pendulum development should be sufficient to fund SatoshiPay for the foreseeable future significantly reducing any need for SatoshiPay to raise equity finance;

· Pendulum's ability to facilitate efficient currency exchange is expected to play a key part in the future roll-out of DTransfer, SatoshiPay's cross-border money transfer service business;

· The publicity and excitement created by Pendulum will be valuable to SatoshiPay in attracting and retaining key personnel as well as new business customers; and

· SatoshiPay believes it will also benefit from the value increase of the tokens on the Pendulum network.

Quote from Meinhard Benn

"We are extremely satisfied with the outcome of Pendulum's private token presale. The fact that we were significantly oversubscribed shows us that there is strong demand for our upcoming network and token. New relationships with specialised funds, platforms and protocols formed during the presale will help us to firmly establish the Pendulum network and its PEN token which we aim to develop into major building blocks of the rapidly growing decentralised finance industry."

Quote from Derek Lew

"SatoshiPay established Pendulum, a wholly owned subsidiary, as a vehicle to leverage foreign currency exchange across multiple blockchains  for its DTransfer solution and this increased access utilising Pendulum is expected to build significant value for SatoshiPay. SatoshiPay has been carried in Blue Star's accounts at a valuation based on the last external fund raising which took place in March 2019. Since then SatoshiPay has launched DTransfer and now Pendulum and the board looks forward to the future for SatoshiPay with optimism and intends to explore how this can be best realised for Blue Star and its shareholders."

This announcement contains inside information for the purposes of the UK Market Abuse Regulation and the Directors of the Company are responsible for the release of this announcement.

For further information, please contact:

Blue Star Capital plc	[phone]
Derek Lew
Cairn Financial Advisers LLP	[phone]
(Nominated Adviser)
Jo Turner / Liam Murray
S tanford Capital Partners Limited (Broker) Patrick Claridge / John Howes / Bob Pountney	[phone]

About Blue Star Capital

Blue Star is an investing company with a focus on new technologies. Blue Star's investments include SatoshiPay Limited, a payments business using blockchain technology; 6 early-stage to mid-level esports companies, including Guild eSports plc, a global eSports business headquartered in London whose lead investor is David Beckham and Dynasty eSports Pte Ltd., an eSports platform with a mission to become the largest eSports franchise in Asia; Leaf Mobile Inc., a mobile leading free-to-play mobile games group; NFT Investments plc, a company that engages, partners, incubates and develops non-fungible tokens; and Sthaler Limited, an identity and payments technology business which enables a consumer to identify themselves and pay using just their finger.

Forward looking statement disclaimer

Certain statements made in this announcement are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts but rather are based on the Company's current expectations, estimates, and projections about its industry; its beliefs; and assumptions. Words such as 'anticipates,' 'expects,' 'intends,' 'plans,' 'believes,' 'seeks,' 'estimates,' and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, some of which are beyond the Company's control, are difficult to predict, and could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements. The Company cautions shareholders and prospective shareholder holders not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect the view of the Company only as of the date of this announcement. The forward-looking statements made in this announcement relate only to events as of the date on which the statements are made. The Company will not undertake any obligation to release publicly any revisions or updates to these forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances, or unanticipated events occurring after the date of this announcement except as required by law or by any appropriate regulatory authority.

 

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