Crypto firm Sygnum has secured several heavyweights of Swiss and Singapore banking to help realize its big ambitions, finews.asia has learned.
Bitcoin Suisse, Crypto Finance, Gentwo Digital and SCX – these Swiss-based firms are seeking to enmesh digital assets in traditional wealth management. Sygnum, a Swiss-Singaporean start-up, is also jostling for position, and is aiming for a two-fold bridgehead.
Sygnum's founders want to not only provide traditional finance access to the burgeoning crypto scene, but also to tie together Switzerland's and Singapore's financial centers. The two co-heads Mathias Imbach, a venture capital expert, and former Wegelin banker Manuel Krieger (pictured below) have set up Sygnum in both Zurich and Singapore, and want to be regulated in both.
Heavyweight Partners
The start-up has an unusually heavyweight line-up behind its 20 employees: former central bank head Philipp Hildebrand and former UBS boss Peter Wuffli count among Sygnum's advisers, and both have also invested.
Stefan Linder, who founded the Swiss Economic Forum conference, andAng Kong Hua, head of the GIC's investment committee, also advise Sygnum. Investors include venture fund Singtel Innov8.
The start-up maintains a joint venture for custody services with Swiss telecoms firm Swisscom, and also partners with Daura, which is developing a Swiss coin underpinned by shares.
«Stealth Mode»
The tie-ups illustrate that Sygnum doesn't want to do everything itself. The start-up's platform encompasses four pillars: custody services for storing digital assets, software to help banks evaluate money-laundering risks, tokenizing traditional securities, and a platform for exchanging cryptocurrencies into legal tender, as well as digital asset management.
Sygnum has been in stealth mode until now, but plans its first public appearance at next week's fintech festival in Singapore.
