Konstellation Announces Launch of Konstellation Venture Studio
At Konstellation, our topmost concern is creating long-term value for the DARC token. To this end, we made the tough decision to transition to an entirely new base layer technology. Although this adjustment has regrettably resulted in some delays, it has allowed us to significantly expand the vision for our project. We believe that developing our own mainnet based on Cosmos SDK technology opens up a whole new realm of use cases for the DARC token. We are excited to share those with you as they become fully formed.
We were extremely excited to announce our first such project during an event on Thursday, December 5, 2019 in Shanghai. Our co-founders Sang Lee and Natasha Bansgopaul, as well as our Blockchain Lead Nicholas Krapels, presented our suite of brands and services as well as the long-term vision for the future. Besides presenting the philosophy behind our strategy, we also introduced our “venture studio” concept.
The Konstellation Venture Studio (KVS) is seeded with funds as well as DARC tokens from Konstellation. Unlike the traditional incubator model, its aim will not be to take small stakes in a wide variety of projects in the hopes that one will take off. Rather, it will take large stakes in projects one by one, with the goal of bootstrapping the DARC token economy. KVS combines industry expertise, capital, and partnerships to foster profound concepts of disruptive innovation with the intent of building out a robust business model before spinning those concepts out as their own separate company.
Our main goal is to implement the model of disruptive innovation theory popularized by Clayton Christensen. We believe that blockchain technology is an “enabling technology” that should be wielded to reduce costs and increase access to financial opportunity for more people throughout the world. The Konstellation Venture Studio will focus on the development of “innovative business models” that target new users that currently exist outside the incredibly finite crypto economy. The purpose of the Konstellation Network ecosystem, driven by its DARC utility token, is to provide and expand the “coherent value network” for blockchain-based financial services.
We believe that Professor Christensen’s theory is especially applicable to the financial services industry. As he once stated in an interview with Rise New York, “The corporation can change in significant ways by creating new business units, but they can’t change by trying to change the old one. It was designed not to change.” By focusing on directly investing in service providers on the Konstellation Network and jumpstarting the DARC token economy, KVS will deliver on its goal to connect, co-create, and scale business units that will serve as critically important nodes on the network for years to come.
The Konstellation Venture Studio differs from the more traditional models of incubator or accelerator. Most of these type firms do not work with small companies or they instead take smaller, less meaningful stakes in a particular company. Another key difference is that, in these models, a product is often already developed prior to the involvement of an incubator or accelerator. This reduced influence limits the ability to co-create. There is less room to give advice on product development or the company’s trajectory. With our expertise, Konstellation can instill entrepreneurs with the best advice and provide support, both financial and advisory, to commercialize an idea. As a venture studio, we can be much more hands-on with projects that complement our existing ecosystem.
What follows is a step-by-step description of how we envision projects moving through the KVS process:
Step 1: Invest
We invest capital, services and talent to incubate revolutionary ideas that have the potential for significant impact in the rapidly growing blockchain-enhanced financial services industry. Many ideas need capital or human resources to take them from an idea to a marketable product serviced by a company. We believe that type of innovation is better when it is not restricted by financing. Konstellation can provide the support necessary to bring these entrepreneurial visions to life.
Step 2: Partner
We utilize the expertise from our family of companies to provide foundational support to get the idea off the ground. Konstellation was developed by the co-founders of DarcMatter, a fund marketplace for alternative investments. DarcMatter’s vision, formulated by its CEO Sang H. Lee, goes beyond improving the paperwork-intensive process of vetting and curating a set of premium investment opportunities from private equity, venture capital and hedge funds. Konstellation Network was developed in the service of this vision to expand the impact of blockchain technology in the global financial services industry.
The Venture Studio takes another step forward toward a more equitable future in that industry. We aim to invest in projects that further the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem as well as efficiency innovations for the centralized finance world. Each prospective investment will be evaluated from the perspective of how it can help us to strengthen the Konstellation Network. From our own experience we recognize the need for support to navigate both blockchain technology and the financial services industry. With our extensive background in the financial services sector, we are aware of the challenges newcomers face with blockchain and vice versa. We are well equipped to offer the guidance necessary to build a long-term strategy for market entry.
Step 3: Scale
We will advise our portfolio companies on strategies to scale their businesses and tap into our wider network of technology partners and institutional investors to find synergies and forge partnerships. DarcMatter’s network alone spans across 62 countries and thousands of qualified investors. We will help the companies that participate in the venture studio go to market with the help of our network. After this step, these projects should be market ready. For KVS, each company and product will be a reflection of the Konstellation brand and will not only contribute to the growth of the community, but will also impact the value proposition of our ecosystem.
Introducing VegaX
The first company that will be launching as part of the Konstellation Venture Studio is VegaX, which aims to be the world’s first comprehensive cryptocurrency platform to provide enhanced data feeds and tokenized asset management products using volatility as an asset. The cryptocurrency market is naturally volatile, primarily due to its short history compared to other financial markets. Nonetheless, we believe that there is an underserved market niche for products that would allow investors to profit from the movement of the market. VegaX will be run in partnership with one of the largest accelerators in the world. We will be sharing additional news about this in an upcoming press release. In the meantime, please sign up for our mailing list on https://vegaxholdings.com.
Stay tuned for the news!
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