There’s no currency like cryptocurrency, and the world is yet to witness a boom.

There is a high demand for cryptocurrencies, rendering them more and more used for various investments. Cryptocurrencies, as a part of the fintech industry, are a rather new branch that still invokes doubt within people.

If you’re considering purchasing or trading cryptocurrencies, you have to do it safely through the best investment platform, much like Smart Valor - a high technology platform that provides software as a service to banks and fintech firms. The enterprise acts as a provider, trader, and manager of digital assets.

Based in Zurich, Switzerland, the company was formed by 4 amazing entrepreneurs, Julien Bringer, Olga Feldmeier, Oliver Feldmeier, and Thomas Felber. So, how did the idea come to their heads? What made them form this unique online crypto-as-a-service company?

Stay tuned if you want to find out more about the amazing journey of how Smart Valor evolved into a million-dollar company.

Childhood Dreams

None of the inventors even thought that they would accomplish something as close as developing their own firm. However, each of the four entrepreneurs had great ambitions even from a young age.

Julien was born and raised in Paris, France, where he spent most of his childhood days. As a kid, he was very outgoing and had a very communicative trait to himself. Being a typical child, Julien enjoyed the outdoors and very often liked to travel with his family.

He was a great student throughout high school and developed a great liking for computer science and software development. That’s the reason he decided to continue his education in that field and enrolled at the University of Toulon and after several years, Julien earned himself a Ph.D. in Computer Science.

Siblings Olga and Oliver on the other hand, are born and raised in Ukraine. Even from a very young age, Olga and Oliver shared a special sibling bond. SInce Olga is older than her brother Oliver, she often helped him with school and studying, becoming his role model. Oliver looked up to his hard-working and intelligent sister, wishing to become as ambitious as she is. After finishing high school, Olgaenrolled and graduated from Vasyl Stefanyk University with a degree in Economics and Finance. She later moved to Germany where continued to study hard, earning herself another degree in Banking from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.

The fourth inventor, Thomas, was born in Germany and spent his childhood there. Like the others, he was also interested in software engineering and computer science as a kid and often engaged in group projects in school. He graduated from the Furtwangen University in Business Networking.

Earlier Experience and Recognition

Co-founder Julien has been a serial investor in security, privacy, and identification for over 18 years, with extensive research experience and multiple leadership responsibilities. Prior to 2017, he was the Group Head of Innovation Programs at IDEMIA, where he worked on IT security, electronic identity, and authentication.

Julien is an author of more than 80 scientific papers and over 50 patents and served as part of program committees at several conferences. He’s co-founder of two other companies named Kallistech, a computer science firm, and HODLNG, which is a blockchain for LNG.

Moving on to Oliver, he also carries a rather impressive previous work experience. After finishing his first college in Germany, he moved to Mexico and got an MBA from EGADE, Tec de Monterrey University in Mexico. He served as Managing Director for two firms called Capgemini Consulting and Verto Advisory AG for a total of 15 years, being in charge of IT implementation projects.

Another impressive portfolio is that of Thomas - holding 12 years of bespoke software development experience. He co-founded and oversaw IT at BeeZero, a Linde Group business. Tomas is also experienced in product management, with 10 years of experience in the fields of fintech and software engineering. Thomas served as managing partner at Tekaris GmbH for 4 years, and as a senior IT consultant at Reply for another 5 years.

And last but not least, Olga was the first woman who was permitted the first bitcoin license back in 2015 in Switzerland, and due to this, she became a leader of the Swiss Crypto Valley. She was a commercial managing partner of a firm called Xapo, one of the first bitcoin custodians in the world. Prior to entering the blockchain business, she worked as a senior executive at various institutions, including UBS and Barclays Capital. Olga also worked for the Boston Consulting Group for five years, where she advised major banks on strategy.

Global Acceptance

Smart Valor is a financial tech business that operates a cryptocurrency and digital asset exchange. Regulated by Liechtenstein's financial regulatory body, the company made a big boom on the market in no time since its launch in 2017 and became available to customers from 130 countries.

Standing hand in hand with rivals like Cryptor Trust, Lawnmower, and Templum and Grayscale, among others, made Smart Valor an apt competitor, ready and willing to take on the fintech world.

The online platform is efficient in providing direct, easy, safe, and simple access to the world of digital assets and alternative investments for investors on a global level. Aside from cryptocurrencies, asset tokenization is a significant and important concept for alternative investments such as venture capital, real estate, and private equity. Smart Valor mainly settles on these aspects of the business.

In October 2018, the company went live with a trial access program that allowed up to 5.000 users to be the first to pass KYC and AML online and attain investment possibilities. Smart Valor offers tokenized asset acquirers with specialized services and the platform's infrastructure to tokenize assets, as well as direct access to a large community of approved investors.

Even in the first few years of existence, Smart Valor became the first completely regulated online company for security tokens based in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. All three important regulatory achievements have been met.

The company was granted the status of Financial Intermediary in Switzerland which is a pretty big achievement in Liechtenstein, acquiring permission to conduct foreign currency exchange, which subsequently led the company to apply for a banking license.

The online platform has its own cryptocurrency called VALOR for which the company received 7 million tokens over two funding rounds. Smart Valor held its third and final private presale round from November 1 to November 26, 2018, followed by a public ICO.

Fortifying the Finances

Smart Valor has received $4.8 million in funding across two rounds. Their most recent fundraising came on July 30, 2019, in the form of a Venture-Series Unknown round. Six investors have contributed to the success of Smart Valor. Out of those six, Venture Incubator, LLC and Marius Messerli are lead investors.

On the Business-to-Business front, its API-based crypto-as-a-service initial public offering enables banks and fintech firms to deliver digital assets to their clients. The subscription period for Smart Valor's SDR issue expired on February 3, 2022.

There was a lot of demand, and the IPO shares in Sweden were completely sold out. On February 10, 2022, Smart Valor SDRs began trading on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market.

Smart Valor, Today

Headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, as of 2022, the company counts almost 50 employees that are working tirelessly towards improving the business even more. Unfortunately, Julien is no longer part of the directory team of Smart Valor since he decided to leave the company in 2019, only two years after its founding.

Luckily, the other three co-founders Olga, Oliver, and Thomas are still going strong and have reeled in another three members to join the leadership team. The board of advisors and directors has 10 members, all exceptional professionals, serving different positions at the company.

Despite the unpredictability of the future, we’re more than positive that we’ll be hearing a lot more about Smart Valor, all with bells and whistles.