FastForward into Factom and Intensity Therapeutics – FastForward Innovations has advanced US$6 million to Factom, which will be converted into equity at a future date at a 25 percent discount to the price of Factom’s proposed Series B fundraising (terms yet to be announced). In addition, the xompany has the right to invest up to an additional US$9 million, on the same terms, by not later than 30 September 2018.
Loan from CEO
The deal will be funded from existing cash resources, and a US$800,000 loan from Mr Lorne Abony, the company’s chief executive officer. The loan from Mr Abony is a 12 month unsecured term loan at an annual interest rate of 7 per cent, be repayable on the earlier of 20 July 2019 or the date the company completes a debt or equity fundraising realising gross proceeds of greater than US$1 million.
The funds invested will, among other things, be used to expand Factom’s US engineering team:
- to build the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform to be efficient and responsive to scale customer growth, and
- accelerate the product roadmap to deliver more product features and increase revenues. In addition, Factom intends to use funds to increase the company’s proprietary patent pool from 14 to 20+ US patents, build a stronger enterprise marketing and sales team, and invest in tooling needed to scale customer operations and minimize back office overhead.
Lorne Abony said: “The US$6 million invested under the SAFE is FastForward’s biggest investment to date, and in addition, we have the right to increase the size of our investment on the same terms by 30 September 2018. We have been negotiating terms with Factom as an early investor in its proposed Series B fundraising for the last 6 months and we believe the SAFE structure – common in the US – gives FastForward real upside on the successful close of the Series B round, as well as protecting Factom and giving it the best possible chance to raise its Series B round at the highest price it can achieve. The SAFE Agreement positions FastForward as an early investor in the round – not the lead investor and ultimately, the lead investor will set the price. We look forward to updating the FastForward shareholders regarding pricing and other Series B terms later in 2018.”
Paul Snow, CEO at Factom: “We are delighted to close the SAFE Agreement with FastForward. We are based in Austin, Texas and it has been a pleasure getting to know Lorne as we grow. We believe Lorne and his team at FastForward will be a huge asset to Factom as it moves forward with its Series B round and continues the development of our innovative business. Factom has had a great year with 2017 all about educating the market on the incredible opportunity Blockchain represents as a means of keeping data secure and untampered. 2018 has been the year for executing our business model. I am happy to say we are hitting the projected milestones on time and on budget while building extremely valuable partnerships, such as the one with FPT Software, and further partnerships that will be announced in due course. We have grown at over 200% in the year to 30 June 2018 (vs same period of 2017), and the blockchain industry as a whole continues to grow, with Factom at the forefront of disrupting the financial services/data security sector.”
Jim Mellon, chairman of FastForward: “Blockchain is a technology with enormous potential and we have great confidence, along with many other industry advocates, that Factom is at the forefront of this hugely disruptive space. Tim Draper of Draper Associates, the high-profile tech venture capital firm which led Factom’s Series A round, remarked in Cointelegraph in November 2016 that the Factom team has the opportunity and the potential to build a company greater than Oracle and Palantir and IBM combined – we share that view. FFWD’s strategy is centered around identifying the highest quality management teams in the sectors we invest in; we consider Factom’s team second to none in the industry and their technology at the very forefront of the disruption that is already taking place in the financial services sector. As Lorne Abony recently stated, FFWD continues to look at opportunities that complement our positions in Factom and Vogogo and the Board remains of the view that Blockchain provides a real opportunity to deliver value growth for our shareholders.
Lastly, I would like to thank Lorne for his generosity advancing the US$800,000 on short notice. To secure the deal with fierce competition the Initial SAFE Advance needed to be US$6 million; the Company was in a closed period with its accounts due, and was in negotiations with (and had made commitments to) Vogogo, Leap Gaming, Intensity and others, and Lorne immediately put his hand in his pocket to support the Factom deal. I and the other Directors are very grateful for him doing so on an unsecured basis (at a time when he continues to draw no salary). He has great faith in what FastForward is doing and the potential of our investment portfolio, and that faith is shared by the rest of the Board. Bravo Lorne.”
About Factom Inc.
Factom’s software, a Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) model, allows enterprise companies, SMBs, and Government organizations to maintain a permanent and immutable, time-stamped record of their data, creating SmartProvenance(TM) capable of proving the negative case using identity, ownership and time, all tied to the Factom blockchain. Factom’s BaaS reduces the cost and complexity of conducting audits, managing records, sharing data across companies, supply chain management and complying with government regulations. Factom also utilizes a unique two-token model to secure data with better integrity, security and a stable cost model not affected by cryptocurrency fluctuations and eliminates cryptocurrencies for its customers needed by other blockchains to operate.
Factom’s BaaS platform uses powerful application programming interfaces (APIs) that are easily integrated into customer environments without the need for custom code development. Factom is developing a robust revenue model that will continue allowing customers to plan and scale their businesses with a predictable cost model as new features are designed. By using a BaaS business structure, Factom begins generating revenue early and allows for metrics driven management and efficient customer growth,
Factom’s series A funding (completed in March 2017) was led by Tim Draper of Draper Associates, along with Medici Ventures (the VC arm of Overstock.com) and Stewart Title along with other strong VCs, who assisted in closing a strong mix of top institutional and strategic investors in a round raising approximately US$8.03 million resulting in a post money valuation of approximately US$38.03 million.
During 2018, Factom announced a number of partnerships including with FPT Software, a company based in Vietnam with over 10,000 employees and an IT services focus. Crucially, Factom delivered the final stage of its technical milestones, the fully decentralized Factom protocol. Factom now has a significant number of parties running the Factom protocol, where no one party has majority control, and the protocol itself is a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) multi-leader, consensus algorithm, the only one of its kind in production today. Furthermore, the Factom Blockchain is dedicated exclusively to proving the recorded data exists (proof of the existence) and as such, it far surpasses both Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as all other “proof-of-work” networks, never designed to secure data. Because Factom is engineered specifically for data, smart contracts work much better and the identity of block signatures are verifiable and auditable for most countries’ accounting standards, unlike almost all other public blockchains.
Current and former clients of Factom include the Department of Homeland Security and IPRD Solutions, Inc. and a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in 2017. Factom also works with a number of banking, financial services and insurance industry clients. Factom was the first US company to sign a BaaS contract in China with WanCloud, a Chinese subsidiary of Wanxiang Group in 2017. WanCloud is preparing to launch its sales of Factom’s APIs through a cloud-based API sales engine exclusively in China. Factom also won top prize for writing a proposal to Wanxiang Smart Cities initiative to use Factom’s BaaS sold from WanCloud to record city data. Plans are still developing for expansion into Asia with the rapid growth of China and Japan in blockchain in 2018.
As at 31 March 2018, Factom had gross assets of US$1,407,035 and for the year ended 2017 reported a loss of US$4,672,163.
Intensity Therapeutics
FastForward Innovations Limited has committed to subscribe for a total of 38,458 Series B shares of Intensity Therapeutics Inc. at a price of US$4.50 per share for total consideration of US$173,061. Intensity is currently closing its Series B equity fundraising, which is expected to be fully subscribed, to raise in aggregate US$9 million from existing and new investors. The price per share values Intensity at a pre-money value of approximately US$58.5 million, with the price per share representing an uplift of approximately 125% since the company’s original investment of US$500,000 (acquiring 250,000 Series A Shares) in October 2015.
At this price the company’s 288,458 shares of Intensity (comprising 250,000 Series A Shares and 38,458 Series B Shares) would be valued at approximately US$1.3 million.
FastForward has also been granted a warrant by Intensity to subscribe for up to either (a) a further 1,111,111 Series B shares at a price of $4.50 per share or (b) 1,000,000 new common shares of Intensity at a price of US$5 per share (total value US$5 million) at any time prior to 30 September 2018.
Jim Mellon: “The results from Intensity Therapeutics’ work continues to be so positive we had no hesitation taking up FFWD’s pro rata entitlement in the Series B funding round. In addition, the Warrant granted to FFWD locks in a right for the Company to invest further funds at US$5.00 per share should results over the Summer continue to impress. We believe the Warrant will be of interest to UK based institutional investors and the Company plans to present, with Intensity management, the results of the IT-01 study to date to interested parties over the Summer.”
Lew Bender, president and CEO at Intensity Therapeutics: “We are delighted Fast Forward has committed to maintain its investment by participating in our Series B funding round. Our drug, INT230-6, continues to achieve excellent clinical results in study IT-01. The safety data generated to date indicate a dose escalation is possible. In addition, we see tumor response in multiple cancer types, even at the low doses administered. This round of funding is expected to help to advance our clinical program into Phase 2a.”
About INT230-6
INT230-6 is a novel, anti-cancer drug for direct intratumoral injection. The product contains potent anti-cancer agents that disperse throughout tumors and diffuse into cancer cells. INT230-6 was identified from Intensity’s DfuseRx(SM) platform and is being evaluated in a clinical trial; IT 01. In preclinical studies INT230-6 administration eradicated tumors by a combination of direct tumor kill coupled with recruitment of dendritic cells to the tumor micro-environment that induced anti-cancer T-cell activation. Treatment with INT230-6 in in vivo models of severe cancer resulted in substantial improvement in overall survival compared to standard therapies. Further, INT230-6 provided complete responder animals with long-term, durable protection from multiple re-inoculations of the initial cancer and resistance to other cancers. In mouse models the drug has shown strong synergy with checkpoint blockage including anti-PD-1 antibodies.
About Study IT-01
IT-01 is entitled A Phase 1/2 Safety Study of Intratumorally Administered INT230-6 in Adult Subjects with Advanced Refractory Cancers. The trial aims to enroll approximately 60 patients with different types advanced solid tumor malignancies in a multicycle dosing regimen. The study is currently recruiting in the U.S. and Canada with plans to open additional sites in multiple countries. The study’s primary objective is to assess the safety and tolerability of multiple intratumoral doses of INT230-6 with or without an anti-PD-1 or other checkpoint blockade antibodies. Secondary assessments are the measurement of injected and bystander tumor responses, and determination of the systemic pharmacokinetic profile of multiple doses of INT230-6’s drug substances after single and then multiple intratumoral injections. Exploratory analysis will characterize patient outcome, as well as evaluate various tumor and anti-tumor immune response biomarkers that may correlate with response. The trial includes several adaptive components that will allow for adjustments in patient groups, dosing schedule and dose volumes administered. Data will be used to assess the progression free and overall survival in subjects receiving INT230-6. Further information can be found at www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT#03058289).
FFWD : FastForward into Factom and Intensity Therapeutics