‘Banking for blockchain’ platform raises AUD$37m in pre-ICO round

ASX-listed blockchain solutions company DigitalX has announced Bankera has successfully closed its Pre-Initial Coin Offering (ICO) round by raising €25m (AUD$37m).

Bankera, a digital fintech solution platform based in Europe, has closed €25m via the sale of 2.5 Billion Banker (BNK) tokens at €0.01 each.

Bankera is building a regulated bank for the blockchain era, so it means it will be a digital bank with traditional banking services (eg, giving out loans) and will support both cryptocurrencies and regular currencies.

With DigitalX as its corporate advisor, it held the token sale to fast-track the development of a 'digital bank' for consumers operating in the blockchain era.  

"This announcement is an exciting milestone for Bankera," says Leigh Travers, DigitalX CEO.

"The result of its latest pre-ICO round is a testament to the strong interest and demand for the project being developed.

"At the same time, we're excited to see how Bankera will disrupt the traditional banking sector with its innovative blockchain-enabled innovation."

Eva Kaili, Bankera advisor and European Parliamentarian adds, "With over 15,000 investors supporting our project and a team with a track record of success, we were confident of a successful token sale. The support from our community has exceeded expectations and we look forward to delivering on our mission.

Bankera's 'digital bank' will provide traditional banking and investment banking services to the blockchain marketplace including payments, loans and deposits and investments.

In particular, it will offer businesses instant payment settlements - using proprietary know-your-client (KYC) and fraud detection solutions - to collect information about the incoming payments and automatically settle transactions which otherwise could take weeks.

Throughout the pre-ICO process, DigitalX provided a range of industry-specific and traditional corporate advisory services, as well as marketing services to Bankera.

With the strong demand for the pre-ICO, Bankera expects to raise further funds through an ICO at a price of €0.017 in the near future.

It also expects to receive a banking license by 2019.

Bankera is an operational fork of SpectroCoin, a product with more than 300k users, 50k cards issued and all the necessary IT infrastructure.