Talinn, Estonia-based Fibonacci is going through the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) route to fund their Agro Tech indoor appliance manufacturing, and they are offering their cryptocurrency FIB for this. Fibonacci’s target is the North American cannabis market.
North American cannabis market is estimated to be US $ 8 billion currently, and is estimated to cross US $ 20 billion by 2021. Fibonacci’s appliance is for hydroponic farming of cannabis, although it can be used for growing other herbs and vegetables. Hydroponic farming is a technique within the overall superset of hydroculture, i.e. the method of growing plans without soil, where mineral nutrients in a water solvent are supplied to the plants.
Fibonacci’s indoor vertical appliances for cannabis farming will use hydroponic technique, light emitting diode (LED) lighting. The appliance will have four rotating vegetation cells, which will allow the owners to reap their cannabis harvest in a sequence. The user needs no knowledge of botany or farming. The controls within the appliance are automated. Basically the owner can open the glass door of the appliance and take a plant for daily consumption. It’s that easy! The electricity consumption is expected to less than a typical indoor AC, and the size is eminently suitable for indoor hydroponic farming.
Fibonacci has spent over two years in intensive research and development, and they already have the product ready. What they need is a manufacturing facility to produce at scale, so they can serve the growing cannabis market in the USA and Canada. They have plans to set up one such large facility in Nevada, USA, and start delivering their appliances to customers starting August 2018. They aren’t eager to go to investors for raising large funds, because the investors are likely to ask for a large stake in the company. This is the reason Fibonacci is going the crowdfunding route, and with the growing global interest in cryptocurrencies, what could be a better crowdfunding avenue than an ICO?
Fibonacci has already started their private presales round of FIB on February 14th, during which 35,000 tokens are available at 0.1 ETH per token. The expected rise in price during the public sale, i.e. ICO, is anticipated to bring the price to 0.15 ETH per FIB. In all, Fibonacci expects to raise US $ 13.76 million, and their ICO will end in March 2018. The company will accept Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) cryptocurrencies during the ICO, besides USD and EURO among fiat currencies. The FAQ section of their website is sufficiently detailed for the investors who may be interested in their ICO.
Aleksey Baranov, CEO & founder of Fibonacci believes that their product will meet with good success in the North American market, although they will need to watch out, for the US officials have signalled a crackdown on the marijuana. The promise of crowdfunding through the ICO route, capitalizing on the growing interest in cryptocurrencies and the decentralization they offer, has attracted other companies in various other sectors too, as reported earlier. The following examples show how businesses in various industries are taking the ICO route for crowdfunding, or using cryptocurrencies to bypass limitations of traditional investment mechanisms:
- Sofia, Bulgaria-based LockChain is launching a zero-commission travel marketplace powered by their cryptocurrency LOC, and they will compete with com and Airbnb.com.
- Vilnius, Lithuania-based Debitum Network is bringing facility to provide loans easily to small and medium enterprise, through their cryptocurrency DEB.
- Renowned Harvard and MIT scientist Profession George Church has founded his start-up Nebula Genomics, with the larger target of reducing cost of genome sequencing to US $100, from the current level of US $ 1,000. The participative business model of his company will be fuelled by cryptocurrency Nebula.
