SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm, is launching Libeara, a tokenisation platform democratising investment by creating more accessible, transparent and secure markets.
In partnership with FundBridge Capital Pte. Ltd. (FundBridge), a Capital Market Services License holder, regulated to conduct fund management activities by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and subject to the necessary regulatory and other approvals being obtained, FundBridge will leverage Libeara’s tokenisation platform to create the first tokenised Singapore-Dollar Government Bond Fund for accredited investors. Vistra will serve as the fund administrator. Libeara is a technology platform service provider to FundBridge. Through its tokenisation platform, Libeara aims to provide FundBridge’s accredited investors with a seamless experience in onboarding, subscription and redemption of units in a tokenised Singapore Dollar Government Bond Fund.
The fund will be a traditional government bond fund and FundBridge will procure investors and otherwise manage this fund. Fund units are represented as tokens, involving the creation of native digital fund units on distributed ledgers through a technology platform created by Libeara.
“This will be the first time a Singapore Dollar Government Bond Fund will be offered in token format. At Libeara, we care deeply about not only creating a token representing an asset but also about how close the token is to the actual asset. Ensuring that FundBridge’s investors can buy native tokens, where each token represents a unit of the fund, is central to the infrastructure of the tokenisation solution that we have created for FundBridge,” said Aaron Gwak, Founder and CEO of Libeara. “To boost credibility and structural integrity, the Fund will be working with an international credit rating agency to have it rated — a first in the world. The agency will be reviewing both the underlying asset quality of the components of the fund and the token structure as well.”
Incubated by SC Ventures, Singapore-based Libeara has built an institutional-grade platform backed by its deep knowledge of tokenisation technology and the team’s experience in financial regulations and structures. Through Libeara’s platform, customers can safely and efficiently issue security tokens for their investors. Libeara uses Decentralised Ledger Technology to provide a formidable tech stack for security token offerings. Libeara’s platform opens up the world of investing to digital asset natives and traditional investors to invest in previously inaccessible assets. The company was formed following successful proof-of-concept projects in the Philippines, Singapore, Hong Kong and Ghana, where it studied the need to correctly blend technology with existing securities regulations to provide the optimal structure for tokenholders.
“The investment market has traditionally relied on heavily favoured intermediaries and inefficient operational processes. By partnering with Libeara to offer a tokenised Singapore Dollar Government Bond Fund for all our investors, we are ensuring that we can provide additional investment opportunities enabled by lower operating costs, higher transparency and higher operational efficiency,” said Sue Lynn Lim, CEO and COO, FundBridge Capital.
Libeara’s tokenisation platform democratises investments through three curated business use cases:
- Tokenisation service for regulated fund partners – Regulated fund managers can leverage Libeara to issue tokenised fund units directly to their investors in any denomination. This service opens access to tokenised funds across a wide range of assets and jurisdictions.
- Token-native government bonds – Enables central banks and government treasuries to directly issue tokenised bonds. Investors will be able to directly subscribe to tokenised government-issued bonds and store and manage their tokens in secure digital wallets. Investors could easily redeem and transfer their tokens using blockchain technology, which provides immutable records of asset ownership.
- General purpose security token platform – Enables issuers to bring other real-world assets, securities, commodities, media and rights into the tokenisation space by using a general-purpose security token platform. These security tokens would be regulated investment assets that combine the advantages of digital assets with traditional security offerings.
On Libeara’s platform, customer ownership of investment assets is evidenced through records embedded into a public blockchain ledger, giving users immutable, verifiable claims over their investment at all times, plus visibility into all holdings and transactions.
To provide top-notch functionalities on its platform, Libeara is leveraging the expertise of partners such as:
- Fireblocks, digital asset infrastructure provider, to create direct custody wallets for app-based users
- Fazz, via StraitsX, for convenient conversion between stablecoins and fiat
- Chainalysis for their onchain AML capabilities
- Chekk for its Know-Your-Customer and Know-Your Business solutions
- Letsbloom for accelerated secure cloud deployments and compliance observability
“As we build an ecosystem of ventures and partners in the digital assets space, Libeara is an exciting new venture: tokenisation will make a number of asset classes more widely available,” said Alex Manson, who leads SC Ventures. “As we now have institutional grade custody and exchange of digital assets with Zodia Custody and Zodia Markets, Libeara is the next logical step to better serve our customers.”