Axiology, the Vilnius-based innovator in blockchain securities trading and settlement closed a EUR 2 million funding round. This financial injection is led jointly by Baltic Sandbox Ventures and Coinvest Capital, acting in group with NGL syndicate, accredited business angels and other angel syndicate. The capital will be strategically deployed to create a fully operational and compliant tokenized securities platform, setting Axiology apart as a trailblazer in the European market.
“Our 6NGLS syndicate of 33 angels has decided to back Axiology with a combined EUR 0,34 million contribution, because we believe the team and their blockchain solution will democratize investments in bonds for retail investors, overcoming current market barriers such as high transaction costs and complex processes. A new Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) Pilot Regime in the EU is being launched enabling compliant application of DLT in financial markets” says Justinas Pašys, NGL syndicate lead.
Spearheaded by Dr. Marius Jurgilas, ex-board member of the Bank of Lithuania and now Axiology's founder, the company has gained the trust of various angel investors, Baltic Sandbox Ventures, and Coinvest Capital. Dr. Jurgilas, who has transitioned from a central banking role to entrepreneurship, identified that steep operational costs are a barrier for both borrowing companies and small-scale investors. Axiology aims to leverage breakthrough technologies to capitalize on recent EU regulatory changes, reducing costs linked to the issuance, trading, settlement, and reporting processes, thereby bolstering the capital market landscape for companies and private investors across the EU.
Dr. Jurgilas envisions Axiology serving multifaceted purposes, including enabling ordinary citizens to directly fund initiatives they are passionate about. "Take, for instance, Lithuania's defense funding," he says, "instead of resorting to higher taxes or increased foreign debt, our system could empower citizens to contribute financially to national security directly." Essentially, Axiology is poised to support various ESG-driven financial projects.
Originating from the SUPER HOW? tech lab in 2018, Axiology stands as a novel alternative to traditional capital market infrastructures, offering a robust system for capital market transactions via DLT technology.
Axiology will operate within the European Union's DLT Pilot Regime framework, which allows regulated market actors to utilize blockchain technology for the issuance, trading, and settlement of tokenized financial instruments. This regime provides a regulatory respite for innovative DLT financial structures, aiming to refine the functioning of the EU's financial markets.
One of Axiology's primary initiatives is to tokenize government bonds, streamlining the availability of these securities to individual investors across Europe. The platform's target audience includes financial institutions and their clients seeking enhanced investment options, as well as businesses in need of more accessible financing.
Axiology's founding team is composed of globally recognized fintech experts with substantial experience in regulatory, banking, and securities sectors, hailing from entities such as SUPER HOW? and FORT Legal. Dr. Jurgilas's prior experience with the Bank of Lithuania includes significant contributions to the development of a payments infrastructure that spurred the growth of the fintech industry in the region and across the EU.
At NGL we invest in startups via investment syndicates because there are many benefits of sharing competences, risks, and costs when investing in startups. First of all, it helps attract more and better deal flow due to the combined larger ticket. It also allows angels to invest smaller sums per startup, making more deals, building a portfolio, and diversifying. We also make collective analysis and decisions leveraging the expertise of our investor group.