As we are approaching the end of the year, the alpha version of BitGate is well underway to completion. In order to finish a test version of the BitGate MVP by the end of the year and prepare for full product launch, we are issuing shares in a conventional equity funding round. We will issue up to 10-15 % of the shares for a price of 500 NOK per share at a valuation of just over 50 million NOK (~$6m). The investment, with a 50,000 NOK minimum amount, has been marketed online and received numerous pledges.
Expecting to raise 5-7 million NOK, we are confident that we will be able to deliver a top-class product that will gain a solid foothold in the Norwegian Cryptocurrency market. We are thankful to all the ICO participants who share our confidence and are helping us build BitGate. We are now ready to plan a large-scale ICO with full token architecture and compliant framework - we plan to launch the ICO in the end of Q1 2018.
BitGate 12-month Roadmap
2017 Q4 Design and Product Development
2018 Q1 BitGate Launch and ICO
2018 Q2 New Currency Markets and European Expansion
2018 Q3 Blockchain Development
2018 Q4 BitGate Blockchain Launch
CryptoFinance 2017
On October 19th, BitGate was the main sponsor of the conference CryptoFinance 2017 in Oslo, hosted by BitSpace. There were over 150 people present, and the event attracted the attention of the Norwegian media. E24, the country’s biggest online financial media outlet, covered the conference. The event was also covered by the evening news on the Norwegian state channel NRK. Being the country's most viewed TV program with 20 % of the entire population watching, the BitGate logo received excellent exposure in front of around 1 million viewers.
You can watch the whole thing here:
Update from the developer team
We’ve decided on internal and external APIs, designed much of the UX, the onboarding process and the database model. We are working on the server backend using node.js to run javascript on the server as well. We are also underway with the code that integrates authentication with BankID.
Additions to the team
BitGate continues to expand, and we have recently added people to our marketing team. As Chief Marketing Officer we now have Matthew Bryce, who has a background working with face-to-face sales as a consultant in the customer service industry. Since then he has spent time in the photography and film business working internationally alongside the best creative marketing teams in Norway. We have also hired Vidhi Kumar, who has over 10 years of marketing experience across industries with a focus on brand building, new product launches and consumer behaviour.
Presentations
In other news, the BitGate team are frequently giving presentations, and in the last couple of months, we have been presenting at BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo International House, University of Agder, FSCons and NBBF Crypto Afterwork. Most importantly, COO Ivar Duserud participated in a live debate with Finance Norway Director of Communications Tom Staavi. The debate has been released as an episode of Pengepodden, the biggest podcast on finance and trading in Norway, by major Norwegian trading platform Nordnet. You can listen to it here (in Norwegian).