LUXEMBOURG, Sept. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Alternative Investment Fund (AIF) Manager Olymp Capital today announced its investment in Nodle.io, an Internet of Things (IoT) and connectivity network provider. Nodle has developed the largest crowdsourced IoT network, connecting more than 1 million smartphones though its Nodle Citizen Network, and recently launched a cryptocurrency for monetizing IoT connections, applications and data. Olymp Capital joins Nodle’s $1.5 million seed round, which also includes participation from Blockchange Ventures, which led the investment round, as well as Blockhead Capital, Bootstraplabs, Mark Pincus with Work Play Ventures and Yeoman's Capital. Nodle is the first Silicon Valley company in which Olymp has invested.
Olymp Capital recently launched the first European investment fund to cover the entire blockchain and crypto asset ecosystem. The fund managed by Olymp Capital will include blockchain-related Private Equity, Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and a fund-of-fund activity centered on crypto hedge funds. The fund accepts investment both in fiat and crypto currencies (bitcoin, ether).
“The development of IoT solutions with blockchain enables greater efficiencies for developers and investors, and the Nodle team has created an ingenius platform for scaling IoT,” said Christophe de Courson, CEO and co-founder of Olymp Capital. “The Nodle architecture is lean, infinitely expandable, and is an ideal blockchain use case.”
Nodle works with application developers, consumer electronics manufacturers and telcos to use mobile phones as a decentralized infrastructure that can support hundreds of thousands of transactions per second. They have the opportunity to monetize their applications via the Nodle Software Development Kit (SDK) and earn NODL coins for helping the network to grow. Nodle is making the remote mining of cryptocurrency efficient and accessible on a smartphone- using less than 1% of a cell phone’s battery life. Before Nodle’s Citizen Network of connected devices, mining coins on a smartphone would drain the battery, overheat and slow down the central processing unit (CPU).
“We are pleased to have experienced blockchain experts as investors, including Olymp Capital, whose founding team we have known for years,” said Micha Benoliel, co-founder and CEO, Nodle.io. “We look forward to working with our new investors to help grow the Nodle Citizen Network and expand the world’s largest crowdsourced IoT network.”
The Olymp Capital leadership team is led by experts in both traditional finance and in the blockchain ecosystem who have drawn on the best features of traditional venture capital, updated for the world of crypto investment. Christophe de Courson, a serial technology entrepreneur, serves as CEO and Paul Bougnoux, co-founder of leading French corporate finance advisory firm Largillière Finance, serves as chairman.
In 2017 the ICO market raised $5.9bn1 whereas $13.7bn2 has already been raised by in 2018 so far. But while the ICO market is booming, it is difficult for investors to access the best deals; investors typically hear about an ICO via social or other media when it is already too late to invest. Tellingly in the first quarter of 2018 average returns for ICOs stood at -55%3, but the 5 best ICOs had a +1,100%4 return.
Olymp Capital’s role is to provide the link between investors and the ICO market to aid discovery of those premium ICO investment propositions. The Olymp network enables the fund managers to identify and screen the best entrepreneurs and companies which are about to launch ICOs in a way that individual crypto investors are unable to match.
Olymp Capital has established strategic privileged partnerships with Fundstrat Global Advisors, the first crypto assets analysis company, based in New York and founded by Thomas Lee, ex-Chief Equity Strategist of J.P. Morgan and with John Bai, ex-Head of Equity Sales Asia & US at Mizuho Securities, and technological research institute SystemX, a French government-backed accelerator focused on digital transformation. These partnerships are supplemented by a worldwide network which Olymp Capital has established, including associates in Luxembourg, Paris, New York, San Francisco, and Singapore, which will enable the fund managers to identify the best opportunities in order to create an international ecosystem by investing in selected ones.
Unlike other funds which launch an ICO in order to collect crypto-currencies, Olymp’s corporate wallet account allows it to collect payments in cryptocurrencies. This offers a significant advantage in ICO investments and removes the need to convert fiat currency to bitcoin or ether for their investments.
ABOUT OLYMP CAPITAL
Olymp Capital is the first asset management firm in Europe to cover all the blockchain and crypto asset classes ecosystem. The firm is headquartered in Luxembourg and is comprised of experts in traditional finance and the blockchain ecosystem. For more information, visit the web site at www.olymp.capital.
EDITOR’S NOTE: If you would like a color photograph of Christophe de Courson, CEO and co-founder of Olymp Capital, or Paul Bougnoux, chairman of Olymp Capital, please contact Chris Pfaff on chris@chrispfafftechmedia.com or +1-201-218-0262. Images can also be accessed at http://s530.photobucket.com/user/montclairpfaff/library/Olymp%20Capital?sort=3&page=1
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1 http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-much-raised-icos-2017-tokendata-2017-2018-1
2 https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/06/29/icos-have-generated-13-7-billion-in-2018-so-far-nearly-doubling-2017-numbers/
3 https://www.tokendata.io/ and Olymp Capital calculations
4 https://www.tokendata.io/ and Olymp Capital calculations