Waves, a Blockchain solutions developer founded by a Russian team and incorporated in Switzerland, has secured $120 million to develop its project Vostok.
Designed for large enterprises and public institutions, this private blockchain platform “lies at the intersection of several disruptive technologies, including blockchain, Big Data, artificial intelligence and the industrial Internet-of-Things,” according to Waves founder Alexander (Sasha) Ivanov.
Vostok will aim to “integrate these technologies in the IT infrastructure of corporations and government agencies” as a “logic continuation [of] Waves’ technological achievements,” he added.
While Waves plans to spend the funds raised on Vostok’s R&D and marketing, Ivanov considers the $120 million amount “not to be large at all,” given his ambition to encompass technologies and approaches “going beyond common blockchain.”
Thus, Waves aims raise another $600 million at least in several subsequent investment rounds to support Vostok’s further development.
Waves, which started the Vostok project earlier this year, expects to launch the platform in early 2019. Competing with IBM’s Hyperledger, Vostok will focus on Europe, Asia and countries of the former Soviet Union.
Tokens without ICO
The structuring and execution of the investment deal were assisted by Dolfin, the London-based financial services group. While the identity of the investors has not been disclosed, Waves specified that the “selected investors” will “not only contribute money.”
“[They also] have the expertise and motivation to use their business resources to [develop] further the project, as well as a portfolio of projects for which Vostok technologies would be beneficial.”
These are more than 15 investors from Vostok’s target markets, i.e. Europe, China, Singapore and Russia, Vostok told the Russian business publication RBC.
The company added that, even though the deal was not structured as an ICO, the investors received tokens for further use of the Vostok platform.
This is “a model familiar to private equity investors, yet customized to enable the financing of the Vostok blockchain project,” said Dolfin’s CEO, Denis Nagy, in a statement.
