LabStart is a Blockchain-based investment platform

LabStart is a blockchain-based investment platform that aims at reassessing the way innovations are funded. At :abStart, everybody will have the possibility to easily support innovative projects and directly benefit from them. Apart from participating in thrilling new projects and helping shape the future, investors will hold a certain number of shares in the resultant intellectual property. As for the innovators, they will be able to bypass the innovation fundraising ecosystem that currently narrows their possibilities [2]. In fact, innovation projects with patents filing can be carried out by a wide variety of entities : start-ups, small to large companies, independent laboratories and others.

Nowadays, it is very difficult for an individual to get directly involved in an innovative project. Indeed, the available solutions for an individual are either to put one’s money in a bank that will invest for you in the company innovative projects they will have chosen on their own or to be part of a group of investors (business angel type) who are incubators’ partners or else who directly know startups to allow them investing in their project.

LabStart allows companies and organizations to present their innovation projects on a dedicated platform. The aim is to streamline and simplify access to investment for players while eliminating many intermediaries. LabStart platform is a kind of crowdfunding solution for innovation projects.In the other hand, LabStart creates investment opportunities for people, allowing them to invest in research projects with no minimum requirements. Investors collaboratively own the property of the inventions through patents. Detaining parts of patents allow them to vote economical and ethic decisions on the use of the patent they backed, so as to maximise their return on investment. LabStart’s decentralized investment platform is a third party service where research projects in need of investments are displayed. Investors owning LabCoins can choose projects they believe in and back them up using LabCoin. LabCoin will be first issued during the ICO and then tradable on market exchanges.

LabStart Ecosystem

What are LabCoins ?
LabCoins are ERC20 tokens created on the Ethereum network. They are used to invest in innovation projects presented on the LabStart platform. The number of available LabCoins is set beforehand and will be distributed during the pre-sale and the ICO (cf. LabCoin distribution for more details). One LabCoin is a unit of digital currency, like a Bitcoin. LabCoin will be tradable on the exchanges after the ICO has ended.

What is LAB?
LAB is shorthand for LabCoin. Most currencies have 3-letter codes (USD, EUR, AUD, BTC) as an international standard. The technical term for this shorthand code is ISO 4217.

How does Labcoins serve investors?
LabCoin is the only currency that allows investors to fund the innovation projects featured on the LabStart platform. For every investor the amount of LabCoins invested in a project coincide with the patent shares owned at the end of the project (cf. I/ Patent properties), as well as the weight of the vote in the joined Decentralized Organization. (cf. IV/ Decentralized Organization et V/ Follow-up and control).

How does Labcoins serve project teams?
Once a project is fully funded, all the LabCoins invested in the project will be converted in fiat currencies on the exchanges to raise the funds needed for the project team.