“Blockchain heralds a new utopian society.”

Asia Blockchain Review recently spoke to Christopher Low, Executive Chairman of Novum Group, a blockchain advisory and provider of fundraising, investment, accelerator and financial services with presence in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea. Low discussed his experience as a successful entrepreneur, the cryptocurrency landscape in Singapore and Southeast Asia, and his vision for the future of blockchain.

Asia Blockchain Review: What are the key strengths of Novum Group? What are some of the projects that reflect these strengths?

Christopher Low: Some of our key strengths would be integrity, passion and a constant thirst for knowledge. All of these strengths are woven across the fabric of great teamwork. As you can imagine, blockchain technologies are advancing at an incredible pace.  Almost on a daily basis, there  are always breaking news regarding developments in the blockchain space. Novum team’s insatiable appetite to be kept abreast of the latest trends allows us to conjure unique blockchain models for our clients’ projects. In addition, owing to the fact that we started our advisory services early in 2017, we have amassed a strong network which allows us to provide a strong advantage for our clients in terms of funding, partnerships, etc. All these strengths flowed through our team to create successful projects for our clients, such as W Green Pay and Kozjin. W Green Pay is a collaborative based model on environmental protection, while Kozjin is a real estate platform.

ABR: What is your long-term vision for Novum Group? How is the company working towards this goal?

CL: My long term vision for Novum Group is to create a symbiotic ecosystem of companies, each delivering complementary services across the entire blockchain value rail. One of our key initiatives is to create a revolutionary model for projects and investors to come together under the mandate of “Quality” and “Accountability”. As a pioneer in fundraising and advisory services, we know what project owners need and what investors demand. Since early this year, our team has been hard at work to perfect this new fundraising model. It is a decentralised fundraising model called the “Novum Trust Order” protocol. Through our NTO protocol, we aim to raise the standard of projects and increase the accountability factor between project owners and investors. NTO Protocol should be launched in September 2019. Besides our impending launch of our NTO protocol, the Novum Group has also expanded our repertoire of services to include investments, accelerator, blockchain software development and financial services. We have also recently expanded to Thailand. 

ABR: How has your experience as a serial entrepreneur contributed towards your role as an advisory in the blockchain community?

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in building successful companies is that you need a great team. In building our advisory service, it was important for me to create a team which exhibits strong camaraderie. The strong interconnecting nuances such as helping your teammates with their tasks during peak times, effusive proactiveness and the ability to work with minimal supervision are key to growing fast without burning out. Without my team, the Novum Group would not be where we are today.

ABR: What makes Novum Group stand out from other blockchain advisories in Southeast Asia?

CL: Our passion, connections and experience in this space make us unique. I would consider Novum to be a pioneer in blockchain advisory in Southeast Asia. As a client, what you want is to engage someone whom you know will be there tomorrow, next month and even next year for your business. The Novum Group’s strong financial standing allows us to stay with our clients throughout their startup and fundraising journey, which can last more than a year. In addition, the Novum Group offers a unique end-to-end one-stop service for our clients as well.

ABR: Can you tell us about the inspiration for founding the crowdfunding platform Concordia Ventures? What features differentiate Concordia from other platforms on the market? 

CL: I was inspired by the highly successful Kickstarter. I believe a similar model based on a pure cryptocurrency crowdfunding model will work. Hence, the Novum Group started the development of our Concordia crowdfunding platform around late 2018. We have just completed our first Minimum Viable Product phase and are aiming for a public launch around fourth quarter of this year. Concordia is designed to be simple to use for the layman investor and project owners, and will be based on our unique Novum Trust Order protocol. In future phases, Concordia would gravitate towards a decentralized crowdfunding platform.

ABR: What are some of the key milestones that have been achieved by Concordia Ventures? 

CL: We did a beta launch for our MVP around second quarter of this year. We have refined our UI and User Experience from the feedback gathered. Even at the MVP phase, we have acquired several thousand investors and onboarded about ten projects.

ABR: When do you expect mass adoption of cryptocurrency to take place in Singapore? What about for other countries in Southeast Asia?

CL: I believe in order for mass adoption to take place, a strong and robust regulatory framework has to be in place. Singapore’s MAS has been very open and forward-looking, which really creates a conducive environment for blockchain startups to push the envelope of cryptocurrency payments and create innovative blockchain-based solutions. Personally, I believe cryptocurrencies will be the digital “legal tender” for countries around the world. It will most probably start off with central banks issuing their own versions of their national digital currencies. Afterwhich, when the various essential monuments of the financial landscape are in place, built on top of public trust, we will see massive adoption of cryptocurrencies in every facet of society.

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