So what exactly is going on at Crowdcube's Solid Labs?

Solid Labs Ltd or Primotoys raised £274k on Crowdcube in 2016 to invest in their children's board game Cubetto. Things have not gone too well. Now in a letter to shareholders the remaining director tells a tale. 

The last filed accounts for Primo showed losses of £1m and a deficit of over £1m. Of course the Crowdcube projections were a little more optimistic. We wrote about them here. They raised over $700k on Kickstarter but comments suggest that didnt end well either. To cap it all, this year they launched another KS campaign for a new version of the game, which raised another $200k. According to recent posts on KS, this game has not been delivered and there is no delivery date. Ring any bells?

Ignoring the KS show and the fact that none of stuff you are about to read has been passed onto KS supporters who have already paid, SHs in Solid Labs, have now received an email explaining that a newco Pigzbe SA registered in Switzerland, has repaid the outstanding debts and will now be the major shareholder in Solid Labs as they take the group of companies forward. There is no mention of who is behind Pigzbe SA, what they do or when they were incorporated. So here it is. 

Pigzbe SA and Pigzbe Ltd, a UK registered company also not mentioned in the email, were both set up this year and both have the same director - the director of Solid Labs, Filippo Yacob. The Swiss company has registered capital of just £77k although information in Switzerland, like its cheese, is full of holes. This is the company clearing over £1m of debts for Solid Labs.

Pigzbe Ltd, now 100% owned by Pigzbe SA and with no capital, appears to be in the middle of an ICO, with a hard cap of $8.5m. It has an app which is used by children as an online piggybank; run using their new Wallo coin wallet. It gets short shrift on Reddit. To date, the ICO claims that over $7m has been bought. It's crazy stuff this Crypto. Oh and it's totally unregulated; which is fortunate. 

You can find various people on the Pigzbe website who might be of interest. The crypto entrepreneur and ex pensions news item, Philip Nunn is one. The site claims it is important that children learn about Crypto from an early age - surely some mistake there!

Something here doesnt add up. Maybe other investors have a view? It is certainly is a long way from the plan that Cowdcube promoted! Apparently Swiss cows are the easiest when it comes to milking. 

Bra Entrepreneur using Coin to divert the gaze of the FCA?

In the latest crazy twist in Fintech, Bra millionaire and Baroness, is launching a new Start Up fund based on crypto currency. 

Michelle Mone and her business partner Barrowman, are about to launch an ICO - Equi. Their new coins will be part of their new fund for start ups. Why they have chosen to raise the money by issuing a new coin is a mystery to me apart from the rather too obvious media attention.

This deal is being set up in such a way that it circumnavigates the eye of the FCA. Its a very fine line they are drawing and I just wonder if this is the sort of monkey business that a Peer of the Realm should be involved in? They get around the FCA regulation because the coins are non transferable so are not considered within the FCA's remit. In fact this is probably the only reason they are even talking about using coin.

If it comes off, which seems unlikely and the FCA quite rightly bring it within their remit, one hopes that a Peer of the Realm will not find another smoosh to hide it under. After all, despite her success, it should be a one size fits all when it comes to financial regulations.