Innovation funding democratized: An interview with the CEO of Dacxi

2020 was an unprecedented year, which saw lightning-fast changes occur across all spheres of life. In the face of rapid technological propagation brought on by COVID-19, it’s no surprise that traditional industries are falling behind. The world’s banks have emerged as a particular casualty. With numerous enterprises going bust, including financial entities, the inevitable conclusion is that old-school institutional frameworks can no longer be trusted. Instead, trust needs to come from an exterior – and most importantly, neutral – source. Realizing the need to breathe new life into a decades-old approach, global WealthTech company, Dacxi, is introducing its own innovative game-changer to the highly dynamic crypto industry.  

Singapore-based Dacxi is currently developing the Dacxi Chain; a novel blockchain technology, designed to bridge the innovation funding gap by making crowdfunding easy and accessible. Set to usher in the era of Crypto 4.0, the Dacxi Chain will be built entirely upon Dacxi’s global network of Crypto Wealth Platforms. It is an in-house crowd-funding system, which will establish a new set of ground rules for the open investment space – in which anyone, no matter their location, can financially contribute to the projects they firmly believe in. By democratizing the investment space, Dacxi taking a major step towards a future in which blockchain technology is trusted over bureaucratic institutions. And a future in which fantastic investment opportunities are no longer restricted to the elite few.  We sat down with Dacxi CEO, Ian Lowe, to discuss the Dacxi Chain, Crypto 4.0, and Dacxi’s vision for the future of crypto.

What are your predictions for Crypto 4.0, and what role do you believe Dacxi has to play within it?

Crypto 4.0 is when the limitless potential of blockchain translates to global innovation that is both meaningful and ubiquitous. Today, blockchain has delivered some innovation, the benefits of which are being felt by a growing minority of people across economies of all shapes and sizes. Crypto 4.0 will see these benefits expand exponentially, with thousands of companies delivering practical applications of the technology for the masses. Dacxi’s role in this vastly expanding ecosystem is to democratise investing in growth companies, while making investment opportunities across all asset classes accessible, safe and simple.

Why has Dacxi, a global company, chosen to base its headquarters in Singapore?

Singapore is a market leader in crypto and blockchain, as evidenced by the forward planning and sophistication of Singapore’s regulatory framework development. Singapore is also a suitable global headquarters because of its strong links across the Asian region and into Europe. And Singapore straddles the time zones of the major global centres.

How has the crowdfunding space evolved since the introduction of Dacxi in 2017?

Crowdfunding as we know it has evolved very little in the last ten years. This is largely driven by the natural limitations of geography and scale. The scope for investees to secure growth capital via crowdfunding is in practical terms limited to their home market.  This has a material negative impact on the number of investors that truly understand an investment opportunity, and in turn constrains both the amount of capital available and the time required to secure it. This then has a knock-on effect whereby growth companies are usually forced to go down the path well travelled and seek investment from professional investors such as VCs and private equity. For the investee, this usually means the growth capital raised is extremely expensive, and/or they relinquish control of the company.

What are the technical specialities of the Dacxi Chain? How does it outperform other popular chains?

If other popular blockchain solutions are like Facebook, the Dacxi Chain is like LinkedIn. Rather than a general solution (i.e. Facebook is for everyone), it’s a niche specialist solution designed for a specific use (i.e. LinkedIn is for business people).

Underneath the hood the technology may be similar, yet the actual application for the customer is fundamentally different. With the Dacxi Chain, we’re creating a blockchain-based solution to connect companies that want to fund their growth with investors that want to make money investing in those companies.

This is the future of crypto/blockchain technology, and the fundamental difference betweenCrypto 3.0 and Crypto 4.0. Crypto 4.0 will be the era of specialist customer-focused solutions, rather than just technology. Remember that crypto usage is still nearly completely internally focused on the crypto world. DeFi are crypto people trading crypto with other crypto people on decentralized exchanges. Or lending crypto to other crypto people that trade crypto on crypto exchanges.

Crypto 4.0 is about bringing crypto to the mainstream market.

Tell us more about Dacxi’s global network of Crypto Wealth Platforms.

Dacxi’s Crypto Wealth Platforms are designed to help everyday investors grow their wealth with crypto. We leverage blockchain technology to provide investors with access to investment opportunities across a growing catalogue of asset classes, including crypto currencies and precious metals. Being a wealth platform rather than a trading platform, we strongly believe in the value of educational content, local customer support, custodial protections and regulatory compliance, as well as simplifying the investor journey.

Dacxi’s Bundles provide a simple way for customers to start building a crypto portfolio. What tokens have you chosen to include in each of your Bundles, and why?

Dacxi customers are able to invest in specific crypto currencies or tokens, and can also invest in a Bundle of tokens in a single transaction. When we create our Dacxi  Bundles, we carefully assess the constituent tokens against a broad set of criteria.

In the end, we have to believe the tokens we offer have sufficient status and potential, that they represent a sufficiently strong investment case for us to invest in them ourselves (and we do!). Beyond that, we often bundle different tokens into themes that can be intuitively understood by the everyday investor. For example, our ‘Blue Chip Bundle’ is a Bundle of select tier 1 tokens, our ‘Blue Ocean Bundle’ is a bundle of tier 2 tokens with compelling use cases and significant potential, and so on.

What is the Dacxi Ecosystem?

The Dacxi Chain is part of the Dacxi Ecosystem, which also comprises the Dacxi Coin – the ecosystem’s native currency. The Dacxi Coin will help facilitate the global Dacxi Chain solution, and without it, the project won’t be as effective.

The Dacxi Chain will be the world's leading tokenized crowd-funding system, and it will solve the many problems in the current crowd-funding market. It goes beyond just the blockchain. The blockchain is the tool that allows us to build a global solution, which in turn allows us to solve the other big problems of innovation funding.

How is Dacxi planning to grow the company’s global presence?

Dacxi’s internationalisation is under a hybrid model. Certain markets will be owned and operated by Dacxi. Other markets will be licenced to a partner already established in that market. A hybrid approach such as this allows us to match the right model to the needs and opportunities of each market.  We also believe this allows us to optimise the speed of our geographic expansion.

What are Dacxi's goals, and what are the steps you're taking to achieve them?

Our timeline to realise the tokenized crowdfunding vision, at scale, is 2-3 years. This is fast, but in saying that, the world of blockchain moves incredibly fast.

We have a clear set of milestones to realise our vision. Firstly, build the customer base in our foundation markets of the UK and Australia, and with it, refine our growth blueprint.  Next, expand our footprint into key regions and markets around the world, all the time growing our global customer base of investors. Third, launch our own blockchain; the Dacxi Chain. This is the blockchain on which our tokenized crowdfunding marketplace will operate. Lastly, launch Dacxi tokenized crowd funding globally.

Today, we have successfully established growth businesses in the UK and Australia. In 2022 we will take our growth blueprint – including a localised platform, marketing and customer support – into a number of new markets. This will set us up to launch the Dacxi Chain in 2023; and with it, our global tokenized crowdfunding system.