World Chess Set To Launch “Hybrid IPO” With Security Tokens

World Chess, an online company that holds some commercial rights to the World Chess Championship tournament, has announced that it would hold a “hybrid Initial Public Offering” ahead of its shares floating on an exchange in 2020.

The company will raise funds by first issuing digital tokens before its IPO, making it one of the companies to take that path in a bid to commercialize the chess game.

According to a report by CNBC on Nov. 22, these tokens will be marketed starting from Friday, and it would be sold to accredited investors both in the United States and in Europe. 

These tokens will give the investors ownership of the World Chess shares on time, and they can be able to convert them to stocks after the IPO or to other investors in a secondary market.

It is expected that World Chess shares will be floated on the London Alternative Investment Market (AIM) next year, although the report did not mention exactly when it will happen.

Ilya Merenzo, the CEO of World Chess, stated that the company will be responsible for authorizing the investors and that the entire process for the sale of tokens will be supervised by Securitize, a technology company that oversees the issuance and management of digital security.

She added that this “Hybrid IPO” will mark the beginning of the introduction of new technologies that can be used in fundraising efforts. Merenzo is quoted explicitly in the report as saying:

(This is) a pioneering financial innovation (and) one I believe, many companies will use to raise funds in the future.

She further confirmed that a more significant amount of the raised funds would be used to help the chess game become an online sport by developing an online championship platform where players can compete and receive official rankings.

In a similar report on security tokens, Coinfomania reported that the Seychelles-based MERJ Exchange launched its security token trading platform.

Featured Image Credits: MATT DUNHAM / AP