Ever heard of Glint? If you're in the UK - or involved in the payments space - perhaps you have. But methinks 99% of our readers haven't.
Better get familiar with them, though, because they're coming to America.
Glint is a UK-based fintech that just received $5M in funding from alternative asset manager Sprott. The firm launched in the UK in 2016 and went live in Europe in 2018, with plans to launch in the US later in 2019.
They offer an app to invest in gold that then enables their customers to "spend" the gold through a Glint Mastercard. The gold is held in Brinks vaults and insured by Lloyds of London.
We've seen a number of gold-backed tokens in the past years, most notably the (unfortunately failed) RMG token (a JV of the UK Royal Mint & the CME which should have been a slam dunk, but wasn't), and many others. Glint's offering represents a different and seamless way to invest in gold. It will be interesting to see if they get traction in the US once they launch, or if they will essentially be competing for gold investors going into ETFs instead. Given the intense interest in gold, particularly since its massive move up in recent weeks, they should have success if they figure out that it's all about DISTRIBUTION.
Cindy Taylor/Publisher
LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Glint Pay Inc (glintpay.com), the first-mover company that enables physical gold to make instant payments using a debit Mastercard, today announces the completion of a private placement of £5 Million in London-based parent Glint Pay Ltd (“Glint” or the “Company”). The financing was led by Sprott, an alternative asset manager and a global leader in precious metal and real asset investments, with approximately $8 billion in assets under management.
Founded in the UK in 2016, Glint established the first app based account in February 2018 that gave clients in Europe a low cost way to buy, sell and save physically allocated gold and for the first time instantly spend it via the Glint Mastercard anywhere in the world Mastercard is accepted. It then added multiple currency wallets, including USD, GBP and EUR, in July 2018. The Company is currently working on its launch into the US. The Dollar and the Pound have both lost more than 85% of their purchasing power over the last 50 years whereas gold’s purchasing power has increased by over 470%. Glint’s transactional gold currency account offers users the ultimate form of money, insulating them from the destructive effects of inflation and protecting them from the systemic risk of future global financial crisis.
Jason Cozens, Founder & CEO of Glint said: “Sprott is a leader in the gold industry and are best-in-class investment specialists for precious metals and real assets investment strategies. This financing provides the Company with the financial resources to launch in the USA and bring our gold-based debit card and personal gold standard to all U.S. consumers.” Cozens continued: “Sprott’s investment and partnership is both a validation of Glint’s platform and demonstrates gold’s important role within the 21st century’s global monetary system.”Sprott becomes one of the Company’s most prominent shareholders, joining a number of existing investors and new High Net Worth individuals in the U.S. and Europe, who have participated in the Private Placement, to bring the total invested to £5 Million.
Peter Grosskopf, CEO of Sprott, explains the rationale for the investment in Glint: “Sprott is committed to being at the forefront of innovation in the gold market by supporting initiatives that make gold quicker, easier and more cost effective to use as a means of paying for goods and services. The Glint Mastercard and its physically-backed storage account are groundbreaking technologies and Sprott is pleased to participate in the launch of Glint.”