French biotech firm HCS Pharma, will be offering pre-IPO securities via a security token offering on the European Digital Assets Exchange or EDSX.
EDSX entered the digital security space earlier this month announcing that it had completed all of the necessary requirements to operate as an exchange in Switzerland. EDSX is both a primary issuance and a secondary trading platform utilizing blockchain technology to streamline the process. EDSX will offer a secondary market for security tokens for both institutional and retail investors.
HCS Pharma, with a stated valuation of €200 million, is said to be the first non-crypto company to offer pre-IPO equity tokens to institutional and retail investors.
HCS Pharma reports that it has confirmed that it will get listed in 2022 on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
The biotech firm states that it is launching a pre-IPO through digital assets with a 20% discount on its listing share price. Every token is representing a SAFE – Simple Agreement for Future Equity – agreement with a price of € 1.00 with investors gaining the right to receive a 20% discount on the listing price of the shares listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
HCS Pharma says that it owns multiple patents worldwide with its BIOMIMESYS being a “unique groundbreaking 3D cell culture technology which associates the behavior of a solid scaffold and of a hydrogel which provides a cell culture microenvironment reproducing all aspects of human tissues, including matrix architecture, cellular organization, cell-cell, and cell-matrix interactions.”
Pre-IPO HCS tokens are currently available on EDSX. As of this writing, over €2 million has been raised on a goal of raising €7 million. Investors must commit a minimum of €500 to participate.
Mauro Andriotto, CEO of EDSX, commented on the securities offering:
“We have built a decentralized exchange using public blockchains but with the goal to keep the platform and the user experience as easy as a crowdfunding platform. Apart from the KYC procedure that is required by law, the investment procedure can be completed in no more than 3-clicks and all the major fiat currencies and cryptocurrencies are accepted. Investors do not have to worry about opening a blockchain wallet, dealing with tokens or understanding how the blockchain works… they will receive the digital contracts (the tokens) by email once the payment is confirmed. Considering that many financial players as JP Morgan and others academic as the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management believe in a transition of traditional finance into the digital world, we would like to become a player of this transition.”
EDSX, based in Zug, Switzerland, has multiple security token offerings in the queue, according to its website. Most financial experts expect that eventually all securities offerings will be digital yet the transition will take some time. Digital securities are expected to streamline the issuance and management process of these assets while enabling a broader ecosystem of novel assets to be purchased and traded.