The platform is built on a permissioned, private blockchain designed to allow issuance of private securities such as equities, debt or other financial instruments in compliance with all applicable federal and state regulations while providing a broad range of functionalities to investors, issuers and financial services intermediaries.
IOI Capital and Markets, a wholly-owned subsidiary of iownit capital and markets, has obtained a membership application from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), thus allowing IOICM to be a placement agent for digital private securities issued on the blockchain-based platform developed and operated by its parent company.
Accessible through its iownit.us website, the platform was founded by Rashad Kurbanov and Hamid Gayibov who launched the development of iownit.us with the goal of bringing the latest technology to private securities markets and modernizing this large segment of the financial
services industry. Developed since July 2017, the platform at iownit.us allows users to review a wide selection of investment opportunities, including equity, debt or funds, with an offering deal room which provides a complete set of information to help make an investment decision.
Investments are kept in one online portfolio and transaction details and history are securely stored and available to at any time.
Rashad Kurbanov, Chief Executive Officer at IOICM, commented: “Our platform has been built from the ground up over the past two years to completely digitize the securities issuance, asset lifecycle management, and secondary trading processes to create a more efficient market. It is targeted for institutional and accredited investors only, providing tools to facilitate a seamless investment process, information sharing, and ongoing portfolio management. We believe our
platform will reduce friction in the market and reduce costs for all market participants, while importantly providing appropriate investor protections. Blockchain, or distributed ledger technology, offers exciting new opportunities for the financial services industry and we
are in the early stages of this evolution. As any new technology being introduced in financial markets, blockchain had to be thoroughly evaluated by the regulators to ensure its application in compliance with regulations that made the U.S. capital markets envy of the world.
We spent a significant amount of time with FINRA and SEC staff on productive discussions working through the use of distributed ledger technology and how it can be implemented to provide a convenient yet secure platform. We are very grateful to the staff for their patience, input, and diligence throughout our membership application process. We are not here to ‘revolutionize’ investing, but we do intend to make it vastly more modern and less complicated for both issuers and investors to engage and transact.”
Private securities, also known as exempt offerings, encompass a wide range of financial instruments and issuers, from early-stage companies to large pooled investment vehicles. According to data from the SEC, exempt offerings have accounted for significantly larger amounts of new capital formation compared to registered offerings in the past 10 years.
