FIC Network is an end-to-end decentralized fixed income securities network that enables the
listing, exchange, and securitization of fixed income financial instruments.
FIC is building a blockchain-based fixed income market that will operate similarly in
concept to the traditional systems, but will reduce costs, operational friction, and risks along
with improved auditability and transparency. The technology will allow the users to list, buy,
and sell any type of fixed income securities/financial instruments, including loans, bonds,
collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), asset-backed securities (ABS), syndicated loans,
credit default swaps (CDS), and futures.
The network is primarily meant for financial institutions such as crypto asset managers,
banks, investment banks, lending companies, hedge funds, credit funds, insurance
companies, family offices, and corporations, as well as for service providers like valuation
firms, auditors, law firms, and ratings agencies. The solution will be opened to individuals in
later iterations.
Website: https://ficnetwork.com/en
Token symbol: eFIC
Token type: ERC20 (Ethereum platform)
Whitepaper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByzKCCWTHkioZzRhTThXSi0zcWM/view
Hard cap: $ 16,000,000
Token price: $ 0.10
ETH/USD rate: Will be locked in after the public sale.
Total possible tokens: 633,000,000
Token sale structure:
Private Sale: 3,500 ETH (completed)
Pre-sale: until 7th May
Public sale: 7th - 15th May (if hardcap is not reached in presale)
Token distribution and vesting
50% — ICO participants (private and presale vested 3 or 6 months)
30% — Reserves (vesting over 3 years)
20% — Team & Early contributors (vesting over 3 years)
Use of funds
The proceeds that the Company receives for Tokens sold to purchasers during the Sale
Period will be used to cover legal costs, fund the marketing campaign, pay for the
development of the eFIC and FIC Network, and to address other administrative and
unforeseen costs.
The following is an estimated, illustrative allocation of budget items for funds received by
the Company following the Sale Period, which the Company reserves the right to modify
in its sole and absolute discretion:
Research and Development (estimated 35% of proceeds).
This includes the development of the eFIC and FIC tokens, hiring core team members
and community developers. Funds will be liquidated as the Company’s milestones are
met.
Administrative (estimated 39% of proceeds).
This involves various miscellaneous expenses that the Company could incur, as well as
administering the Company’s workforce.
Marketing (estimated 13% of proceeds).
Marketing expenses will include various kinds of marketing and advertising used to
acquire market share for the FIC Network.
Services & Other (estimated 6% of proceeds).
A separate budget has been allocated for continually auditing any new smart contracts
our team develops, both for the eFIC token and the FIC Network.
Legal (estimated 7% of proceeds).
A budget has been allocated to ensure compliance with the Securities and Exchange
Commission and other regulatory entities. Our budget is allocated to cover existing and
any new laws and regulations applicable to eFIC
Token distribution timeline
eFIC tokens, including token wave bonuses, will be distributed to wallets once the public sale is completed.
Roadmap
2016
February:
Initial draft of the concept was prepared
March:
Received investment and support from Startupbootcamp New York City Fintech accelerator
April:
Delaware corporation was established
July:
Initial prototype on ERIS blockchain was created
August:
Received investment and joined Boost VC accelerator in Silicon Valley
November:
Changed blockchain tech to Stellar and demonstrated working prototype
2017
February:
Attracted seed funding from Bialla Venture Partners
March:
Full Time core team assembled
August:
Launched application for internal testing, first loans are published on blockchain
September:
Launched distributed application (dApp) for beta testing
2018
Q1:
Token sale
Q4:
FIC Network & App Launched
Product stage
The team has been working on the idea since 2016 where the CEO, Arturs Ivanovs, attracted equity investments from Boost VC, Startupbootcamp and Fintech NYC. Later on the team has attracted investments by Bialla Venture partners, NewBlock Capital, and other angel investors.
FIC formed a full time team and launched a testnet and alpha version of the first product in 2017. The next step is to finalise the token sale and continue product and business development.
Alpha product is already available and can tested here: https://ficnetwork.com/en/demo
Token usage
FIC token is a utility token, used to perform activities on the network, such as listing, trading,
and holding financial instruments. It is not backed by, and cannot be exchanged against, any
financial instruments, and is therefore not a security or a security token in itself.
Team
The team is young, but packs strong experience from both the financial world and blockchain development.
The CEO, Arturs Ivanovs, is the idea guy and main driving force behind the project. Arturs comes from a background in Latvia’s Ministry of Economy, where he worked with lending regulation and coming up with solutions for the problems in the predatory lending sector. As marketing executive and senior project manager at Porter Novelli Latvia he represented some of the most prominent organizations in the Baltics, including the European Investment Fund, the region's largest real estate project Z-Towers, and brands like Mercedes-Benz. He has also represented business interests in Latvian and European Parliament.
Alvar Soosar, the Co-founder and COO, brings experience from the fixed income securities market. He previously managed a $7.8 billion portfolio of fixed income securities, handling origination, structuring, monitoring, and workout of loans and other securities in several countries for nearly a decade. Alvar holds an MBA from the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School and BA from the University of Virginia.
Agnese Keruina, the Chief Scientist of the project, holds a Master’s degree in physics from the University of Latvia. Agnese is deeply interest in mathematics and is highly skilled in analytical and numerical computations. She has participated in International Mathematical Olympiad multiple times, winning a bronze medal in the first European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad in 2012 and also placed second in the International Team Olympiad in 2011.
Anatoly Ressin, Temporary Head of Technology, is currently the CEO of BlockVis, a company involved in organizing blockchain competence and education opportunities and structuring the blockchain market in Latvia and abroad. He has co-founded several companies in his career including Fastr, a reading-training application development firm, and AssistUnion which builds intelligent and performing web-enabled systems.
Peteris Ratnieks, Backend & Blockchain Developer has experience in Python, C/C++, Javascript, Matlab/Octave, Pascal, and Bash. He was previously involved in a startup which developed a blockchain based transaction engine for banks. Peteris has accolades from International Mathematical Olympiads in Argentina and Colombia.
Aigars Staks, Co-founder and Network Architecture Advisor, spent the early part of his career at Microsoft and PWC. He has built his career around large scale IT project management and strategic planning.
Kalvis Kalnins, Co-founder and software developer, is a self-taught programmer from young age. He’s been involved with startups in both AI, education and finance. Before joining the FIC project he founded Stellarmus, a blockchain-based bank-to-bank payment network.
Opportunities
Tokenization of credit instruments will most likely become a huge market in the future. Everybody are expecting tokenization of equities to become one of the biggest use cases for blockchain, but the global credit market is actually bigger than the equity market with $100 trillion against $64 trillion. So the long term potential of having a share of this market is immense.
FIC Network is first mover in creating an exchange for bonds on crypto. This will give them a lot of free marketing in the space. Their team and network is solid, they attracted seed funding from several revered institutions, and with a platform that’s already working, they have a real chance of succeeding in their mission.
The company already has several institutions testing out the platform, demonstrating the business case and their ability to get to market.
The project was started in 2016 which makes it one of the longest running ICO projects among the ICO’s currently offered on the market. A project with a long history shows the seriousness of the team and their focus on the long term play.
Hype is growing around the project. Bitgosu has started marketing it in South Korea, and their social media channels has been growing steadily.
Concerns
While FIC’s token itself is a utility token, the interest yielding bonds created on their platform will certainly be considered securities, and will be dependant on favorable legislation on crypto securities in each country where the platform is offered.
The credit market is huge, but we don’t know how fast the big financial institutions will embrace bonds on blockchain.
The team is young and therefore on the weaker side experience wise.
Conclusion
FIC Network is a solid project by a competent and driven young team. They’re attacking a the problems in the huge credit market with an innovative blockchain driven solution. They received the first seed funding over 2 years ago by big institutions in the New York startup space, and they’ve kept the traction going ever since, with a working platform pending release shortly.
The global credit market is massive, and just like tokenization of equities are expected to become one of the biggest blockchain based economies, bonds should be too.
The team is young and seems a little bit on the weaker side, experience wise. However, their advising team is very solid, and they have proven themselves by winning several competitions and sponsorships and by executing to a fully working platform.
Flipping potential
For flipping, we’re very bullish. With a lot of expected updates and announcements during the months after the ICO, and considering the relatively low hardcap and adding our bonus, we expect that FIC can be flipped for a quick profit.
Long term potential
The long term potential is very big, with a credit market far bigger than what most people realize, even though it will take years for any significant part of it to move to blockchain. FIC has the first mover advantage in this market, and others will have to start playing catch up. With institutional backing and potential clients already testing the software, there seems to be real interest in the platform, and within a relatively short time, the platform could have its first bonds issued.