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BTG Pactual Raises $3.3 Million from Retail Investors with Real-Estate Backed STO ‘REITBZ’
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BTG Pactual— Latin America’s largest standalone investment bank— has provided an update regarding its first Security Token Offering (STO). REITBZ, a real estate fund, has raised a total of $3.3 million from retail investors. Historically, BTG Pactual has exclusively offered services to wealthy individuals of high net worth, but this is changing with the firm’s integration of the STO.
How BTG Pactual is Bringing Security Tokens to Retail Investors
REITBZ was the first tokenized investment fund in South America.
The fund, through an STO, has raised more than $3 million. While the official close has passed, the offering is still available. The initial tokens were issued on the Ethereum blockchain, but BTG Pactual will utilize Tezos in the future.
Perhaps more importantly however, is how BTG Pactual is using the STO to bring new offerings to retail investors. Due to the stringent regulations that typically come with regulated securities, these new offerings have been traditionally confined to wealthy, accredited investors.
Thanks to security tokens, that landscape is now changing.
One of the ways BTG Pactual maintains regulatory compliance while leveraging the benefits of blockchain technology is through Jumio.
As an artificial intelligence-powered service, Jumio verifies the identities of investors. It uses face-matching technology and processes identification documents electronically. It is not clear however, if the system works for international investors or solely those from Brazil.
According to Rogerio Karp, head of B2C and Products for BTG Pactual Digital,
“We have had a fast, friction-free onboarding process since Day 1 thanks to Jumio. Even though some users have tried to trick our onboarding process, with Jumio we are able to identify them before they can cause us any harm.”
Now, after the impressive start, the fund will look to build its portfolio:
“We have a strong potential pipeline of institutional investors that will be joining the offer in the weeks to come. Target real estate deals have already been mapped out and in the following weeks we expect to deploy cash and start building the portfolio. You will be able to follow the investment process through the Investor Dashboard that will go live in a few days.”
When looking to the future, REITBZ is just the start, says BTG Pactual:
“We believe DLT and crypto technology can transform capital markets from an analog, local environment into a digital, global ecosystem. ReitBZ is just the beginning.”
What do you think of BTG Pactual raising $3.3 million with REITBZ? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Image courtesy of BTG Pactual.
Tim Fries
Tim Fries is the cofounder of The Tokenist. He has a B. Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Tim served as a Senior Associate on the investment team at RW Baird's US Private Equity division, and is also the co-founder of Protective Technologies Capital, an investment firm specializing in sensing, protection and control solutions.
