News & Updates

As I mentioned in my last post, I am travelling in Europe most of this month, and on my travels I took the opportunity to drop in at Damex.

The company is based in Gibraltar, and the timing of the visit was such that I could meet with the newly appointed CIO (Chief Innovation Officer) Samuel Rondot, who I first met whilst he was head of OTC at currency.com, and by good fortune Sam Buxton (CEO), Phillip Vasquez (CLO) where available also, along with other members of the team.

The days of Covid have meant we’ve all gotten used to endless quantities of zoom, facetime and teams meetings, but to have the chance to meet everyone in real life is irreplaceable and entirely valuable.

The highlight of my visit was the opportunity to have a live demo of the forthcoming app, actually working and in action. The slick and stylish interface is backed up with speed and clarity. In a nutshell it works as well as it looks good!

Sam demonstrated depositing some fiat currency (GBP) from his Revolut account, it arriving instantly in the Damex app and then just as quickly converting it into USDT. Options then are to stake, or convert into other currencies, or send to external wallets either as payment or cold storage etc.

The app works seamlessly, and proves that the meticulous time spent developing it over the last 12 months has been well worthwhile. Now with over 100,000 clients on the waiting list for the app, its launch, along with the DAMX token is eagerly awaited.

Damex really is a glowing example of a company accelerating through the gears (and not being held back) and I’m super happy to be connected as an advisor to this remarkable company!

A quick update written whilst on a working holiday which entails driving down through France, into and across Spain, where I write this now, before heading to Portugal, Gibraltar and then Monaco, but more on this later in the month!

I’ve recently accepted two new positions that are a delight to announce. I’ll formally add more details on both in the coming days, but especially I wanted to record my excitement to be involved in these early stage projects.

Factiiv, (factiiv.io) is a whole new way to establish credit for your business. We focus on the connections and interactions you make each day so you can run your business as usual while improving your chances of getting credit With Factiiv, you can establish and report the credit-worthiness of your business through everyday business activity and the power of blockchain technology.

I’ve also accepted a position in SIKA, a new spin on making blockchain work. I can’t tell you too much more about it now, but this is an incredible new use case for blockchain and I’m thrilled to be part of the team from the outset.

The array of project advisory roles is so pleasing. My work at IAMX and Damex continues but adding Factiiv and Sika to these brings synergies, and a real sense of purpose to my work.

There is also an update with Novem pending to announce, and I’ll be very excited to unveil how we are developing our Guernsey relationships to bring something wholly new to the market soon!

Much of January was taken up with planning for and delivering the MELD TGE. I’m not going to pretend it wasn’t without hiccups, doing something truly innovative, new and indeed ground-breaking is always going to throw up the unexpected. My role of supporting the process meant that January literally flew past with an avalanche of questions, queries and observations to attend to.

MELD aside though, several opportunities have presented during this time, and February is a month of locking in, developing and nurturing these so that my 2022 is mapped out clearly and my time is apportioned correctly. Whilst delivering MELD is my focus and indeed my passion I do have capacity to lift my head up and observe the wider landscape!

So, I have some very interesting and exciting news to share once things fall into place, and having now been in the crypto world for 18 months (I was told yesterday that a year in crypto is like 7 years in traditional business) I feel my experience now, coupled with my natural abilities for problem solving, relationship building and management and strategy, give me a unique perspective and set of attributes to be able to drive forward into 2022.

I’m going to resist naming specific projects I’ve been talking with in this post, but the diversity is huge, from real estate to trade finance, from OTC to mining, from micro lending to asset management and yield farming there is much to do in the coming months to bring these truly great projects to the fore.

Immediately on the horizon is a trip into Europe. I’ve not travelled too much this year yet, aside from a couple of meetings in London, but as I noted in my previous update, Europe and further afield beckon in the coming weeks and months.

Crypto pricing has been under pressure from a variety of angles since the end of last year, however I feel optimism and desire in the space remans very high, and with so much activity attracting attention and with so many new actors joining the space, 2022 looks like it will be a huge leap forward that is just waiting to happen.

Welcome to 2022, a year which promises some return to normal life in terms of travel, work and pleasure, although I think 2021 was supposed to offer this also, but that didn’t quite work out as planned!

For me 2021 was a hectic year, MELD took over my life completely, the speed and scale of the company development was breathtaking, raising $35m in the private and equity sales and supporting the ISPO process meant that aside from the travelling and meeting people I was on endless zoom meetings!

Since the last update I visited France, Italy (three times), Switzerland (twice) Czech Republic, Gibraltar and of course the UK. Additionally, for personal reasons I also visited Guernsey 3 times, which is where I have now relocated to permanently.

Malta presented a new way of life for me, and will always have a special place in my heart, but the financial landscape, political complications and way of doing business are all not to my liking now, and coupled with the excessive heat which really doesn’t help productivity the decision was made to move.

Guernsey so far has been very welcoming and brings a normality (to me) with it. Very British, but with a sense of ‘exotic’ – rather like myself.

So what does 2022 hold in store? More MELD of course. Whilst the bulk of my initial role in bringing the financial security to the organisation is done, there are some key partnerships still to announce this year.

I’m looking forward to more travel this year, despite the complications of forms and regulations changing every five minutes, and already planned are trips to Tuscany, America, Gibraltar, Spain and Portugal.

I arrived into 2022 in high spirits, filled with optimism and the year already has proved to be an eventful one!

Happy New Year!

Well, some weeks have past since my last update, apologies for that, however now that I’m vaccinated and there is general availability of flights I have taken the opportunity to travel and actually start meeting people again.

Having visited Turkey, Georgia, Italy (twice) Switzerland and France over the last 6 or 7 weeks I’m feeling a lot more like life will return to some normality again.

Most of the meetings I’ve had, are MELD related. The launch of the ISPO on July 1st and the opening of the private sale on the same date, both took a lot of preparation and then once launched took a lot of managing.

My focus right now is very firmly on MELD, as we head towards closing the $30M private sale, however various other aspects of business continue to take some of my time.

SafeAirZones.EU is running well now, with clients onboarded across Malta and in the other territories we serve. The feedback on the product is great, and we are starting to gather traction now.

Cloud RPO has started to move forward, and some changes here in the coming weeks will be announced soon.

Okto has been slightly put on the backburner whilst we develop MELD, however, now the decision to move the trading of the business to Gibraltar instead of Malta, due to it’s grey-listing, I will be turning my attention towards this more as we head into autumn.

The summer months always fly past, even here in Malta where we have more summer than most. The heat this year has been a real factor, with AC running 24/7!

Enjoy the rest of your summer, wherever you are, and I’ll update again on developments soon!

May slipped past without me writing an update, mainly due to personal reasons.

My work however continued apace throughout the month and so here’s a brief round up of the key points.

Okto had gathered momentum and added to the project a new dimension in the form of a payment transfer operation being incorporated in Gibraltar. This jurisdiction offers many advantages and is now also being seriously considered fir the jurisdiction for the bank, ahead for Malta. Okto Digital will continue in Malta having secured its funding from Malta Enterprise and will start its R&D phase as soon as seed is closed.

MELD has been the focus of most attention since I last wrote, as we close in on the launch of the ISPO and official public launch, having secured investment from Silicon Valley Blockchain Society and now being at advanced negotiation stage with several interested parties for the token presale

Alnistar officially opened its Safe Air Zones EU shop this month, with the full range of NCCO units on display. Trials of the product are with several clients now and we have a forthcoming visit from the MD of RHT Europe at the end of June.

Alnistar also is bidding for some exciting projects through its Alnistar Digital brand, and there have been some interesting negotiations regarding the Alnistar Recruitment brand linking with partners in various EU countries.

Novem has been mandated to assist with the sale of several high value works of art and jewellery this month and we are working on placing these with clients.

Cloud RPO has had a team reshuffle, and we now have all the staff required as we push forward with our client onboarding.

Looking ahead, the confirmation of my appointment as CPO at MELD means much of my attention will be focused here for the foreseeable future as we bring the Okto group into sync with it, however, the staff now in place in the other businesses mean I can be confident that clients are well looked after through all channels whilst I focus on MELD and Okto.

Enjoy the summer!

At the end of another month, I reflect on my achievements and think, wow! How did I find time to do all of that?

For Cloud RPO we have hit a record number of new employer sign ups, which bodes well for future business, we have employers from a wide range of sectors now committing to loading their vacancies and employment opportunities into the system. We initially focussed on professional services for our onboarding programme, but have had strong responses in industrial, shipping, manufacturing and food sectors which has been encouraging to say the least! Cloud RPO relocates to it’s new offices on 3rd May also, and with more space, we can continue our expansion plans.

Okto Capital investment meetings continued apace this month, with some significant progress from several interested parties. A change of direction lead by the interest is on the cards, mainly in terms of the jurisdiction the bank will ultimately be set up in. Okto Digital had a great April, winning a funding bid from Malta Enterprise to contribute towards salaries, it now will start operations from it’s new Sliema offices.

Alnistar Ltd has added to its business development and services portfolio by becoming a landlord! With new offices on The Strand, Sliema it will now develop the motor vehicle side of its business plans, alongside an exciting domestic and commercial product showroom.

Novem Ltd has been directly involved in a variety of service and consulting roles, there are two very strong ‘deals’ now on the final stages of being signed, so a pleasing month all round.

Business continues, and I’m pleased to have such a great team around me in all aspects of my working life. On a personal note though, the month took a big turn for the worse, with the passing of my mother. Having lost my father some years ago, to now be without a parental figure takes some coming to terms with. Rest in Peace Mum x

Since arriving back in Malta in late February from the UK, I had to enter a two week isolation period, which gave me time to focus on a particular project that came across my desk. This is somewhat different to the large scale negotiations and innovative ventures that I’ve been involved in of late, in the sense it is a more traditional buying and selling of a specific product range. My hope is to bring this to market during Spring 2021 through my Alnistar Limited company.

Ironically, the very day I was free of my isolation period, Malta announced a month of lockdown, with all bars and restaurants closed, non essential shops closed, and frustratingly the trip to the spa that I’d been looking forward to and the visit to the barber to get my much needed haircut were also both cancelled due to the new lockdown rules.

My annoyance on this though is simply handled by refocussing on day to day work, starting by making some changes to the Cloud RPO sales process, we are now a team of 5 people and our application for expansion grant funding is registered with Malta Enterprise and we eagerly await a decision from them, likely to be during May.

Novem Ltd is, as I alluded to in last months update, working on some very interesting projects, and we have moved one forward with some significance.

At Okto Digital we were pleased to hear the news that Malta Enterprise had made a positive decision on the grant funding bid, and while, at the time of writing, we don’t have the full picture, as there are some conditions applied, we are very positive on finally starting development now.

We all now eagerly look forward to a swift lifting of restrictions here in Malta, scheduled for April 11th, and then the start of summer swiftly following. Being in Malta has many advantages despite the lockdown, and with spring finally in the air, the promise of a busy, warm summer is just around the corner.

Despite all of the activities I have ongoing, I am still available for consultations and other business advice work, I’m running at approximately 80% capacity right now, so if you have a project, or a business matter that I can assist with please do get in touch.

You can book time through this website, or simply call or email of course!