First ever fully licenced market place for tokenised alternative investments set up

The first ever fully licenced marketplace for security tokens and digital assets in the country, Smart Valor, has been set up in Baar, with an office in Liechtenstein, too.

The company, which was launched on Tuesday 30 July, provides services relating not only to the brokerage but also the custody of digital assets. At present exchange rates are given only for the bitcoin and ether digital currencies with regard to the Swiss franc, US dollar British pound and euro, but others are to follow in the coming months.

It was mentioned how Smart Valor has benefited from strong interest from institutional investors such as Venture Incubator Funds, which are managed by the VI Partners risk capital company based in Altendorf in the canton of Schwyz, and in which big firms such as Nestlé, Credit Suisse, Novartis and ABB are involved. Funds flowing in from here and other investments from  Asian and American companies resulted in CHF 3.2 million flowing into Smart Valor’s coffers last month.

The company’s CEO and co-founder, Olga Feldmeier, who can be seen in the centre of the photograph with her jolly team, said that, after eighteen months’ preparation, the launch was an exciting milestone on the company’s way to being the first ever token market place in the world for alternative investments.

It was actually in 2017 that Smart Valor was chosen by Thomson Reuters as one of five start-up companies for its Incubator Programme. Today, with its 35 employees, the company is one of the larger players in Zug’s Crypto Valley, where some 600 companies using blockchain technology operate. Indeed, in 2018, Smart Valor was voted “one of the ten most exciting companies in the world” by the Forbes US economics journal.