Cryptocurrency

The first tokenized medtech VC fund ever: Interview with Emmanuel de Watteville, Founder & General Partner, BlueOcean Ventures II

BlueOcean Ventures II is the first tokenized medtech VC fund with a dedicated STO platform, the SwissVCToken, to allow token holders to gain profit from startup investments.  Emmanuel de Watteville, Founder & General Partner of BlueOcean Ventures II will be discussing this innovative blockchain VC project with us in this interview.

1) Please tell us your name and about yourself?

I am Emmanuel de Watteville, General Partner and Co-Founder of BlueOcean Ventures II. I have been a part of the startup ecosystem since 2003, when first starting as a business coach and financial expert at FONGIT, Geneva’s leading incubator, and the Swiss Federal Commission for Technology and Innovation (now InnoSuisse). Since then, I have acquired extensive experience in coaching, creating, managing, developing and financing more than 200 high-tech startups across several sectors, including the medical and information technologies. To pursue my passion for blockchain and tokenization, I started to work on launching the BlueOcean’ STO in Q4 2017. I am also currently a Board Member of Volumina Medical SA.

2) What is BlueOcean Ventures II?

BlueOcean Ventures II is a VC fund that invests in early stage medical device and life science companies. This fund was launched in 2015 and has since then invested in 5 startups:

o  AVA – named best Swiss startup in 2017 and 2018 – design, manufacture and sale the Ava bracelet, a device worn  at night for effortless insight about a woman’s fertility, pregnancy, and health.

O Abionic – named No 3 and N 2 best Swiss startup in 2014 and 2015 – develop and sell a  unique diagnostic platform that improves medical diagnosis in the field of allergies and sepsis using a single drop of blood.

O Rheon Medical is developing the world’s first adjustable glaucoma drainage device.

O Volumina Medical: manufacture and commercialize highly innovative tissue reconstruction technologies for the market of reconstructive and plastic surgery.

O Luciole Medical: develops and sells RheoPatch and RheoSens, providing reliable ways of measuring key oxygenation and flow parameters of the brain.

This is the firms’ 2nd fund after BlueOcean Ventures I which was launched in 2008.

The aim of BlueOcean Ventures  is to grow the portfolio of BlueOcean Ventures II  further to a minimum of 8 up to 12 companies, depending on the amounts raised during the STO.

3) What is the demand for blockchain solutions in the medtech industry and what services will BlueOcean Ventures II bring to these markets?

We believe that blockchain technology is changing and disrupting the Venture Capital Industry as well as the investment paradigm in many ‘illiquid’ industries. The traditional fundraising process for venture capital companies is typically very onerous, paperwork-intensive, and generally inaccessible without a deeply connected network. Moreover, if an individual wishes to invest in a venture capital fund, one would need a lot of money and the correct networks to access the relevant decision makers, within the fund. Finally holding an interest in a venture capital fund means being ‘locked’ for a period of 6 to 10 years with little to no possibility of reselling.

The blockchain disruption comes now with the ability to realise a STO: a Security Token Offering. Security tokens as its name indicates are securities, in other words tradable financial assets. Just like financial assets, security tokens are also backed by something tangible, such as equity, real estate, bonds, stocks, revenues, royalties etc. Overall, anything that has a financial “registered” value. In addition to have the same characteristics as financial securities, security tokens are combined with the benefits and capabilities of digital assets.

The second benefit of a security token refers to the nature of the token being easily accessible and transferable – through registered platforms opened worldwide 24/7/365 – and easily divisible and traceable – through Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT’s).

Security tokens are therefore giving companies and funds such as BlueOcean an efficient way to raise and manage capital with an exposition and a facility that have never ever been possible.

4) On BlueOcean Ventures II, Investors can participate in an already existing portfolio of 5 outstanding ventures from the medical field, please tell us more about this.

BlueOcean Ventures ll portfolio consists of: Ava (elected best Swiss startup in 2017 and 2018), Rheon Medical, Volumina Medical, Luciole Medical and Abionic. Once the BOV Token is purchased, from the STO platform SwissVCToken, it will then allow qualified and accredited investors to indirectly gain profit from these MedTech companies early on. This is the first tokenized fund to provide qualified investors access to a medtech fund that has existed for several years. It’s important to emphasize that only accredited investors will have the opportunity to gain from this venture.

5) With BlueOcean Ventures II, VC investment is now a tradable asset as BlueOcean Ventures II transforms the highly illiquid Venture Capital asset class into a tradable asset. How does this work?

The BlueOcean special STO platform, SwissVCToken Pte Ltd, has been set up in an STO-friendly location (Singapore), and it works in the following way: An investor purchases BOV Tokens from SwissVCToken, the STO Platform that is using both cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH) and fiat money (CHF, US Dollar). SwissVCToken then invests 100% of the net STO proceeds exclusively in the existing BlueOcean Ventures II Fund. This enables all token holders to become indirect shareholders into BlueOcean Ventures II. BlueOcean Ventures II uses the funds brought by the STO platform to invest or reinvest into a total of eight to twelve companies including the 5 startups already in the portfolio. BlueOcean Ventures II follows closely these portfolio companies and provides them with strategic and financial guidance to help them grow and gain value. Once a portfolio company is sold, the proceeds will be distributed to the investors, including SwissVCToken, which in turn will use 100% of these proceeds to buy back a fized portion of each investors’ token at the current market price or the token’s net asset value, whichever is higher.

Naturally token holders are also permitted to sell their tokens at any time through BlueOcean’ exchange partners. As such, BlueOcean tokens behave like any other financial securities and as such are easily accessible and transferable – through registered platforms opened worldwide 24/7/365.

6) BlueOcean Ventures II is providing both cryptocurrency and fiat payment options for those investing in BOV token, what are the benefits for investors

The simple benefit of providing both cryptocurrency and fiat payment options is allowing more investors to join. Our platform allows therefore non crypto investors to also participate in our STO, not only during the investment phase, but also during the BOV token holding phase (custody storage for fiat investors) and during the buyback phase (buyback to be realised in ETH or in fiat).

7) What is the BOV token/ SwissVCToken, how can we get it and how will token holders gain profit from startup investments?

SwissVCToken is the STO platform dedicated to the sale of the BOV Token. Only accredited and/or qualified investors may participate. The presale of the first 5 million tokens, with a 60% bonus, will be open beginning October 15th. The presale with continue with 20 million tokens at a 30% bonus until November  30th.

In a first phase, 50 Million BOV tokens will be sold. 100% of the STO net proceeds will be invested in BlueOcean Ventures II. Once token holders have invested, they can choose to wait until they receive a pro-rata share of the fund’s proceeds or sell their token on exchanges starting in Q1 2019. Token sale is available on www.blueocean.swiss to a limited number of qualified/accredited investors.

8) Would you like to share with us, some of your major partners and any big investors in this project?

Our major partners have been carefully selected for their convincing track record, their expertise and experience in the field of STO. Namely:

  • Hedgeblock who is leading the STO operations
  • Tokenget who is developing our STO platform
  • Rosemont who is providing us with legal guidance
  • Blonde2.0 who is our PR agent
  • IdentityMind who is dealing with all KYC aspects
  • Deltec bank who is our bank for fiat transactions
  • Sentry who is handling all security aspects…

…and many more..

9) On what stage of development is the BlueOcean Ventures II’s dedicated STO platform and what is next on your roadmap?

Our STO platform is currently being tested and should be live in the coming days.

Our presales is launching on October 15th. Main sales is expected to follow on Dec 1st.

10) Please tell us more about your dedicated team of experts and advisory board?

Our experts and advisors have been selected during the 10 years of existence of BlueOcean Ventures: they are all bringing key competences to our fund by helping us to carefully select our portfolio companies.

11) How Safe is BlueOcean Ventures II, would you like to talk about your legal and security measures?

Our STO platform is very safe: a tier 1 security provider for ICO/STO with a long standing experience in the field of cybesecurity applied to ICOs, has been hired.

We have been advised to not further disclose what measures/counter measures have been deployed.

12) Do you have more information for our readers?

I remain available should you wish to have a short call with me.

Visit the BlueOcean website for more information: https://blueocean.swiss/.

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