Pre-Series A for HTGF Porfolio Company

Frankfurt-based blockchain start-up Agora Innovation Closes a Seven-digit Pre-series A financing from FinLab EOS VC

February 18, 2020

FinLab EOS VC makes a seven-digit Euro investment into Agora Innovation GmbH. The Frankfurt-based blockchain start-up will extend its marketing and sales activities and aims to enter European and Asian markets. The access to the EOS blockchain enables the company’s reach for its market leading IVE.ONE software.

Frankfurt’s Agora Innovation announced today a seven-digit pre-series A investment from FinLab EOS VC, a venture capital fund backed by Block.one, the publisher of the blockchain protocol EOSIO, and FinLab AG, one of the first and largest investors focused on the Financial Services Technologies (“FinTech”) and blockchain sector in Europe. The seven-digit financing of FinLab EOS VC underlines the potential of the blockchain start-up’s technology.

With IVE.ONE, Agora Innovation brings a regulated issuing and investment platform to market maturity, which enables global trading of digitized securities within the legal framework on the blockchain. In addition to the Ethereum protocol ERC20, IVE.ONE can also be set up on the EOSIO blockchain, ensuring the highest scalability for their product.

With the seed investment of HTGF one year ago, we were able to bring our product IVE.ONE to market readiness and developed a better ecosystem for digital assets on the blockchain. With the current financing round, we now have the opportunity to expand our marketing and sales activities and to grow our team in these areas. In 2020, Agora Innovation will focus more on the Asian market with our goal to expand into Europe as well. The ongoing partnership with HTGF confirms the approach of our solution and we are pleased to have won a second key partner in FinLab EOS VC. Our next customer is already scheduled to start a token sale on our platform in the second quarter of 2020.

Phong Dao, Agora Co-Founder and CEO

With IVE.ONE, Agora Innovation created a product that incorporates a complete and automated regulatory framework on one single platform. The company’s solution offers the highest usability and functionality for investors and issuers. With this approach, Agora makes a key contribution to the market viability of blockchain-based securities that have a significant efficiency advantage compared to the issuance of traditional financial instruments.

Stefan Schütze, Managing Director of FinLab EOS VC Fund.

Agora Innovation is also taking the next technological step with the FinLab EOS VC investment.

With access to the EOS blockchain, we hope to achieve greater flexibility and less dependence on just one blockchain protocol. Following ongoing updates to EOSIO, EOS is becoming a serious competitor to the Ethereum blockchain and is enabling us to cover even more use cases with our product IVE.ONE while ensuring the scalability of our solution.

Evgeny Matershev. Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer

With IVE.ONE, Agora Innovation enables the blockchain-based issuance and investments into regulated securities. Verified digital identities can be linked to blockchain wallet addresses and they also become aligned with the varying national regulatory requirements using the so-called “Rule Engine”. This solution allows the automated verification of corporate and personal data which protects market participants from money-laundering and the risk of sanctions, while ensuring regulatory compliant trading of securities based on blockchain technology.

About Agora Innovation
Agora Innovation GmbH is a financial technology company focusing on blockchain, DLT and digital assets, founded in 2017 by Phong Dao, Evgeny Matershev and Robert Malec. The product IVE.ONE, with the goal of providing better digital assets for everyone, is a global investment and issuance platform for legally compliant digital securities on the blockchain. The platform combines various national regulatory requirements with the blockchain to protect companies from money laundering and sanction risks. All market participants in the field of digital securities, such as issuers, investors, stock exchanges and others, can this way strictly comply with local and global regulations and have full control over their assets.

Press
Agora Innovation GmbH
phong@agora-innovation.com
https://ive.one
Phone: +49 177 64 28 26 2

About EOS VC
Block.one’s EOS VC program offers developers and entrepreneurs the funding they need to create community-driven businesses leveraging EOSIO. It provides support through venture capital partnership funds that primarily aim to achieve sustained utilization of the EOSIO ecosystem by investing in a concentrated and diversified portfolio of blockchain-focused companies building on the EOSIO software.
The EOS VC initiative is dedicated to fostering a global network of individuals from a number of disciplines through our engagement events. As part of the mission and vision, EOS VC engages with the blockchain developer community on a regular basis.

About FinLab AG
Stock market listed company FinLab AG (WKN 121806 / ISIN DE0001218063 / ticker symbol: A7A) is one of the first and largest investors focused on the Financial Services Technologies (“FinTech”) and blockchain sector in Europe. FinLab’s focus in this context is providing venture capital for start-ups. FinLab’s aim is long-term participation and ongoing support of its investments. FinLab in this regard supports its investments in their respective development phase with their network and know-how. In addition, FinLab acts as an asset manager and manages assets in the three-digit million-dollar range.

Press contact
FinLab AG
investor-relations@finlab.de
www.finlab.de
Phone: +49 69 719 12 80 0

About High-Tech Gründerfonds
High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF) is a seed investor that finances high-potential, tech-driven start-ups. With around EUR 900 million in total investment volume across three funds and an international network of partners, HTGF has already helped forge almost 600 start-ups since 2005. Driven by their expertise, entrepreneurial spirit and passion, its team of experienced investment managers and startup experts help guide the development of young companies. HTGF’s focus is on high-tech start-ups in the fields of digital business models, industrial technology, life sciences, chemistry and related business areas. To date, external investors have injected over EUR 2.4 billion into the HTGF portfolio via more than 1,500 follow-on financing rounds. HTGF has also successfully sold interests in more than 100 companies.
Investors in the public-private partnership include the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy, KfW Capital, the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and 32 companies.

Contact
High-Tech Gründerfonds Management GmbH
Dr. Ulrich Schmitt
Schlegelstraße 2
53113 Bonn
Phone: +49 (0)228 82300 147
u.schmitt@htgf.de
https://www.htgf.de/en