Saturday, January 6, 2018

Altucher-Backed Crypto Exchange Raising $10 Million



For the record (via CoinDesk)

James Altucher is investing in a new cryptocurrency venture.

As detailed in an SEC filing dated Thursday, Altucher has invested in a seed round for a Delaware company called Bitzumi, Inc., which intends to offer a forthcoming newsletter product and exchange service. The firm plans to raise up to $10 million, with a minimum raise of $1 million.

While Altucher is described as a co-founder both in the text and on the company's website, in emailed statements to Coindesk, he backed off of this categorization, calling himself just an investor and supporter of the firm. Affiliation aside, the filing indicates Bitzumi plans to use the new funds to grow its business into other verticals.

"Bitzumi Publishing's goal is to dominate search engine traffic in the cryptocurrency industry and drive traffic to both our Bitzumi exchange and other product offerings, such as subscription-based newsletters," the filing states.

Notably listed in the filing are a number of competing companies, among them some of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges including Coinbase's GDAX offering and Bitstamp.

Looking further, the venture foresees that it will even offer customer cryptocurrencies to clients. In the short-term, however, it intends to focus on a publishing business. Bitzumi has an affiliate deal with investment newsletter service Agora Financial, LLC to "market and sell" a newsletter created by Altucher.

According to the filing, Scot Cohen, an oil and gas industry entrepreneur, will serve as CEO, while David Briones and Glenn Pollack will take the roles of CFO and director, respectively. The firm has registered as a money services business in 50 states, FinCEN indicates.

-RW


1 comment:

  1. Maybe he'll be able to afford a haircut if he meets his fundraising goals.

    ReplyDelete