Cajutel - a low cost internet provider for West-Africa
I've been getting involved in the ICO craze the past few months. Mainly because I want to get my crypto Lambo, obviously.
I found a project that's having their ICO right now, until mid-November and I'm posting about them because I feel they're not getting the attention they deserve.
It's about Cajutel, a newly founded company that will bring internet access to two West-African countries, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.
Goal of this project
Cajutel are going to offer cellular phone access. They will install their own 4G cell base stations, powered by solar panels and backed up with battery packs, to provide coverage in these African countries.
Scepticism by ICOrating
ICOrating reviewed this ICO and found some issues.
To get clients, they will offer subscriptions with attractive features at "low prices". ICOrating found that Cajutel has used outdated figures in their whitepaper to make it sound like there is currently no mobile (internet) access available in Guinea(-Bissau), except at very high prices. "Unfortunately" (for investors, obviously) that's not true, there are multiple players on the market already. However, Cajutel will be the only provider of 4G services.
ICOrating also found that the price of the subscriptions set forward in the whitepaper also seem very high, compared to the average income of $ 69 per month in these countries.
Response to ICOrating's review
CEO and founder of Cajutel, Andreas Fink, counters ICOrating's review in a statement released on 4 September 2017:
- The average income mentioned by ICOrating ($ 69 / month) is too low, it's between $ 250 and $ 300 / month.
- There's a discrepancy between the "official average income" and the actual income in Guinea: the official number is based on the GDP which is based on income from importing and exporting goods. But income generated locally isn't taken into account.
- Virtually every local owns a mobile phone and spends around $ 20 - $ 40 / month on a subscription.
- Current service providers only offer slow and/or unreliable connections with low volume caps.
Why I like the project
At first I felt very sceptical about this project. It's very low key, only a handful of people are on the team and there's little to no advertising compared to many other ICOs.
But after reading up on the project and following their Telegram chat, I drew the conclusion that Andreas Fink doesn't seem to be about words but about action. His track record on LinkedIn shows he's an entrepreneur. He knows the local market because he's lived there and he knows how to run companies and install mobile access networks because he's done that too.
The project will offer dividends once it become profitable, and if agreed upon by the shareholders. It's projected to do so in year 3.
The project will offer a high quality internet service in a place that I feel really needs it. I thinks it's time the African continent joins us on the internet!
If the ICO doesn't raise enough money, it's up to the shareholders to decide what will happen next ([https://cajutel.io/faq.php](see FAQ)).
Concerns/dislikes
The ICO doesn't seem to go very well: more than one month in and they've only reached phase 2, so less than 20 000 CAJ sold. But I'm trying to solve that with this post.
The majority of the tokens is retained by current shareholders, so in the end the ICO participants might not be able to make final decisions on how the company is run.
Your opinion?
How do you feel about this company and their ICO? Be sure to let me know in the comments!
ICO details
- start: 18 August 2017
- end: 18 November 2017, 08:30 UTC. The original end date was 18 September but it was extended with two months
- token: CAJ
- price: 0.05 ETH (phase 1, 75 % discount) - 0.20 ETH (phase 5, no discount), see page 23 of the white paper
- total supply: 1 780 000 CAJ (fixed)
- available: 720 000 CAJ (40.45 %)
- retained by current shareholders: 1 000 000 CAJ (56.18 %)
- bounties: 60 000 CAJ (3.37 %)
Founders
- Andreas Fink, CEO
- David Vine, CTO