UAE based La Boulangerie, a French bakery whose goal is to bring quality standards that will revolutionize the food delivery industry, is raising capital for its venture through Blockchain enabled P2P Security token investment platform STOKR.
STOKR based in Luxumborg, is regulated under EU MiFID II law. The issuance of securities is governed by EU regulations and is available in a number of European countries. Both individuals and legal entities can invest on STOKR.
Investors with just 100 USD can invest in La Boulangerie, as the token price is 1 USD, but a minimum investment of 100 USD is required. Investors can invest using Euro, USDT (ERC20), Bitcoin USDT liquid and other cryptocurrencies.
As per Stokr website, the bakery will initially set up shop in the city of Dubai in the UAE but plans to expand across the UAE and GCC region. The food and beverage market in the UAE, particularly in Dubai, is already sizable with more than 11,000 businesses. Prominent established players dominate the bakery industry with more than 200 bakery-cafes in Dubai.
Utilizing Liquid blockchain allows for a direct link between ventures and investors, which mean investors, own the securities directly through the Security token, and verification is done over the blockchain.
In an AMA session, Adam Schneider, CEO of Le Boulangerie states, ”We ‘re focusing on quality which is something they do not, they compete mostly on prices and even with the prices that currently see here in Dubai and the UAE, there is a margin high enough for us to make quality while still matching their pricing.” Adam is an avid bitcoiner who has been in the space for past 12 years.
Arnab Naskar, the Co-founder of STOKR in an interview stated, “We want to provide people with direct ownership of assets when it comes to the stock market in the form of security tokens. Happily we are seeing interest from countries like Egypt, who have a young generation and these guys will be getting deep into the blockchain and crypto assets much more over the upcoming period. So we are quite also happy to support those audiences.”
He adds in the interview, “We have a very interesting bakery, French bakery in Dubai, which is raising money on STOKR. It is an interesting business, a mom and pop show. They may not become a unicorn, but they will definitely be a zebra in their own market. These kinds of products can provide an interesting return for STOKR platform investors. So I see there is also a trend for this kind of alternative investment market to really grow in the coming years.”
La Boulangerie has raised over $261,000 from nine investors so far. Their security token is listed under the ticker “BAKER.” La Boulangerie is currently focusing on setting up their production center in Dubai. The production center should be ready by October 2022. The STO offering is still open as they seek to raise 2.5 million USD.
On a side note, I wrote this piece and highlighted this story, as I think it will be interesting to see when the UAE itself will announce the regulation of security token offerings. In my opinion, this would bring in more alternative investments into the startup and Small and Medium Sized businesses in the UAE and GCC region.
