The journey of EQUI Capital’s ICO has been a wild ride from the day it was announced.
Founded by lingerie entrepreneur Baroness Michelle Mone, or Lady Mone of Mayfair, OBE as she prefers to be called, and businessman Doug Barrowman, EQUI Capital has not only failed to meet the set target but bounty hunters have also accused the firm of short-changing them.
According to the Financial Times, EQUI’s goal was to raise US$80 million but by the end of March this year had only raised US$7 million. This resulted in EQUI extending the public sale from April 12 to June 30 but this did not help matters as the total amount that had been raised by the close of June was still US$7 million.
New Plans
Consequently, EQUI announced that they would be abandoning the ICO citing plans for a global launch after partnering with a new co-founder.
“We started off as a UK focused business and are now transforming into an International business,” the firm wrote in a blog post late last month. “The new business will be rebranded EQUI Global.”
That new partner, it emerged last month, is none other Apple legend Steve Wozniak. The Apple co-founder acknowledged his involvement with EQUI Capital last month.
“I’m involved with, very soon, my first time being involved in a blockchain company called Equi,” said Woz as initially reported by Hard Fork. “Our approach is not like a new currency, or something phony where an event will make it go up in value. It’s a share of stock, in a company.”
Stiffing Bounty Hunters
Besides not meeting its crowdfunding goals EQUI Capital has also invited the ire of bounty hunters who had been enlisted to promote its ICO on social media and other online platforms. This was after it was revealed that they would only receive a fraction of what had initially been promised. EQUI Capital has, however, asked the bounty hunters to discuss the matter with AmaZix, the firm which was hired to manage the bounty program instead.
“Lady Mone has been mega busy in Silicon Valley dealing with our new founder so to be honest she doesn’t have the time to be involved by Bounty people complaining over nothing,” a spokesperson for the Baroness told Herald Scotland. “If they need to complain they should do this to the agency who hired them in the first place and not EQUI.”
Dubai Luxury Condos
This is not the first time Baroness Mone is getting involved in a crypto-related venture. Last year in September the Baroness announced that she would be developing a condo complex in Dubai at a cost of US$325 million where properties would be available for sale in bitcoin following a partnership with BitPay, as CCN reported at the time.
“I wanted to offer the property, tech and blockchain community a unique and exclusive opportunity by merging the property and tech sectors together in a true first for the industry,” said Mone.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
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