Spiko, co-founded in 2023 by Paul-Adrien Hyppolite and Antoine Michon, has raised €4 million in pre-seed funding. Spiko is a tokenization platform that claims to be the first provider in the world to offer fully tokenized Money Market Funds (MMFs). The digital assets leverage both Ethereum and Polygon blockchain tech.
Michon is the former ministerial advisor to the French Government on the digital transformation of public services.
Hyppolite is the former deputy head of the French Treasury’s financial markets division.
The knowledge of and connections within the French government may have helped in garnering regulatory approval.
The funding round was led by Frst, with the participation of Blockwall, Kima, Financière Saint James, and Bpifrance, along with angels including Adrien Montfort (Sorare), Frédéric Montagnon (Arianee), and Nicolas Bacca (Ledger).
France is a jurisdiction that has sought to enable digital asset innovation by providing bespoke rules. Additionally, the European Union has approved rules to help digital assets to thrive across Europe.
Spiko was aided in the round by the fact the company has received regulatory approval from the Autorité des Marchés Financiers in France.
The company said that tokenized shares of the Spiko MMFs (named USTBL and EUTBL) are now available. Spiko allows retail investors access to tokenized MMFs while reducing the minimum investment amount for individuals to $1000 or €1000.
As many people understand, capital markets can be siloed and exclusive. By leveraging technology, digital securities can streamline processes and boost access to novel assets while providing more opportunities to investors.
By using distributed ledger technology, transactions can be immediate and ownership secure.
Spiko states that it enables issuance, settlement, and custody of securities – starting with mutual fund (UCITS) shares – at a fraction of current costs.
Hyppolite, co-founder & CEO of Spiko, said blockchain development is moving fast in contrast to the “sluggish adoption by finance incumbents.”
“Our goal is to transform the backbone of financial markets by facilitating the issuance of securities on much more powerful databases than those currently used by incumbents.”
As Spiko provides access to retail, or non accredited investors, these individuals can benefit from lower cost transactions. The current environment is typically only accessible to sophisticated or acredited investors.
In France, mainstream banks frequently offer sub-standard returns for investors on fixed-term deposits 0, hoovering up most of the returns for themselves. Low-risk MMFs outside of the US currently come with high minimums and fees – thus lessening the appeal for smaller investors. Spiko aims to address this shortcoming.
The two Spiko Funds are below:
- Spiko EU T-Bills Money Market Fund (ISIN: FR001400ODL1, Bloomberg ticker: SPKEUMM), which invests in Treasury Bills issued by the strongest Eurozone Member States,
- Spiko US T-Bills Money Market Fund (ISIN: FR001400ODM9, Bloomberg ticker: SPKUSMM), which invests in Treasury Bills issued by the U.S. Treasury.
The Funds are said to be default compatible with any Web3 wallet and accessible to retail investors. Shares are transferable 24/7 on blockchain rails. Retail and professional investors can invest in the Spiko MMFs either through Spiko’s investment platform or via APIs provided by Spiko.
Paul Frambot, co-founder & CEO of Morpho Labs, said he is excited to see firms like Spiko taking conventional assets and migrating to blockchain technology while maintaining traditional compliance standards.
“We are witnessing an acceleration in the convergence of traditional finance and decentralized finance.”
Shareholders of the funds are also entitled to participate in their governance and elect board members.
The first board of directors of the funds has a majority of independent members, including blockchain development firms such as Angle Labs, Morpho Labs, and Usual Labs, as well as tokenization firm RealT.
Spiko funds are operated in collaboration with third parties, such as CACEIS Bank (custodian), CACEIS Fund Administration (fund administration), Twenty-First Capital (asset management), and PwC (audit).
Boris Spremo, Head of Tokenization at Polygon Labs, said Spiko is fulfilling the promise of using blockchain tech to create the new home for capital markets.
“…sovereign assets fractionalized, democratized, and available to all.”
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