Former Credit Suisse digital poobah Marco Abele sought to take in $30 million in a coin offering around a luxury-sharing firm. The end result fell far short and the ex-banker is looking at options for more money.
Zug-based Tend is the brainchild of Marco Abele, the former digital boss of Credit Suisse's Swiss bank. The project allows clients to be part of luxury assets through co-ownership, such as shares in high-end sports cars, property, vineyards and whiskey collections.
A February initial coin offering was supposed to have raised 30 million Swiss francs ($30.8 million) to foster Tend's development, including financing big hires such as former Uber executive Rasoul Jalali (pictured below) as operating chief.
Abele continues to court a flurry of press for the project, but the ex-banker has gone quiet on the specifics. Tend hasn't disclosed the ICO proceeds, which two separate sources told finews.com stood at less than 4 million francs. ICO Bench, a crypto industry website tracking and rating coin fundraisings, the proceeds stood at just over 4 million francs.
A spokesman for Tend said the company had «received sufficient funds to move to the next phase after finishing its digital token sale in March, and since then has been focusing on current and future developments». He didn't detail the specific proceeds.
Capital Increase?
Last week, Tend told investors it planned to hold a capital increase, in a letter sent to token-holders. «The intention is to provide an anti-dilution effect so to keep the current's token sale investors' shares at the same level,» a person identified as an administrator said in a Telegram group devoted to Tend. A spokesman for Tend wasn't immediately available for comment.
The move is emblematic of the boom-and-bust fortunes in cryptocurrency: investors have cooled on initial coin raisings, or ICOs, the high-risk but potentially high-paying fundraising method. Tend told investors it has 200 members, and is on track to hit 400 by year-end. The start-up also said it will disclose more partnerships with specialist services and luxury firms in coming months.
