Two hours and forty-five minutes! This is the time it took for the Lyon-based company iEX.ec to raise the equivalent of 12 million euros. To raise such a sum, the young company, which offers a decentralized IT services platform, used an initial coin offering (ICO). These new financing operations, which appeared with the rise of bitcoin and virtual currencies, allow companies, in exchange for the sale of their own cryptocurrency, to raise funds. Buyers buy the virtual “tokens” issued by the company using another established digital currency, such as bitcoin or ether, which the company can then exchange for real money on conversion platforms. . A sort of digital IPO where the currency acts as a digital counterparty, ICOs make it possible to find funding from a multitude of sources while having the advantage of not resulting in the sale of shares. So in April, iEx.ec released RLC for a value of 0.0002 bitcoin per unit. Within minutes, 50 million tokens were purchased. “We exchanged 80% in euros to finance material investments and recruitments and we kept 20% to ensure the operation of the company,” explains Gilles Fedak, one of the founders. ec has marketed the RLC for a value of 0.0002 bitcoin per unit. Within minutes, 50 million tokens were purchased. “We exchanged 80% in euros to finance material investments and recruitments and we kept 20% to ensure the operation of the company,” explains Gilles Fedak, one of the founders. ec has marketed the RLC for a value of 0.0002 bitcoin per unit. Within minutes, 50 million tokens were purchased. “We exchanged 80% in euros to finance material investments and recruitments and we kept 20% to ensure the operation of the company,” explains Gilles Fedak, one of the founders.

Ultra-fast fundraising

In 2017, more than $ 4 billion was raised in this way, which is a twenty-fold increase from the previous year, but only 2% of the amount of IPOs. In France, five operations were completed during this period. “There is an ICO fever”, notes Florence G’Sell, professor of law and specialist in cryptocurrency issues. The surge in the prices of the main virtual currencies since the end of 2017 should further amplify the phenomenon. According to the CoinList site, which lists upcoming ICOs, in the last week of January  online appointment scheduling more than 15 new trades were planned, including those from Kodak.and the Telegram encrypted messaging service. On the French side, the mining producer Auplata has also announced that it is looking into the subject.

We exchanged 80% in euros to finance material investments and recruitments and we kept 20% to ensure the operation of the company,” explains Gilles Fedak, one of the founders. ec has marketed the RLC for a value of 0.0002 bitcoin per unit. Within minutes, 50 million tokens were purchased. “We exchanged 80% in euros to finance material investments and recruitments and we kept 20% to ensure the operation of the company,” explains Gilles Fedak, one of the founders