Toronto-based Goldmoney, a gold-based payments and savings platform that allows users to acquire, store, and spend gold that is stored in a secure vault, has announced a partnership with Isle of Man, United Kingdom-based investment company LBT Holdings. Goldmoney is also making an undisclosed private investment into the company.
“We are delighted to invest in this early stage, and potentially revolutionary, peer-to-peer lending model and provide our precious metal infrastructure to LBT clients.”
LBT Holdings is the parent company of the Lend & Borrow Trust Company (LBT), an online platform that offers auction-rate peer-to-peer lending and borrowing.
Through the partnership, eligible Goldmoney clients with Full Holdings will be able to access LBT auction rates and earn interest income from loans fully secured by precious metal collateral. Borrowers will be able to monetize their precious metal holdings in their choice of five national currencies.
Goldmoney said the investment will give it the ability to nominate a board member and provide metal dealings and storage solutions to LBT’s clients. The company also said that clients with a Goldmoney Holding, which consist of UK residents and businesses, may gain access to LBT’s auction rates and earn interest income from secured loans.
“It’s a small balance sheet investment,” said Josh Crumb, chief strategy officer and CFO at Goldmoney. “We have a meaningful enough stake, and good partners that we can scale up with later. It’s the kind of deal we want to do at this stage in our business, one that helps us grow our core ecosystem without taking on a lot of the early stage risk.”
Goldmoney’s investment into LBTH includes common shareholders Eric Sprott, and James Turk, lead director and chairman at LBT. The company says that LBT’s offerings will first be available to businesses and UK residents at roll out, and other countries will be added over time.
“Goldmoney was founded on a mission to provide clients with unparalleled access to precious metals ownership with minimized counterparty risk,” said Roy Sebag, CEO of Goldmoney. “LBT has a similar goal of providing clients with an alternative for their national currency savings. LBT currency deposits have no banking counterparty risk, a revolutionary idea and one I believe many clients seek in the prevailing artificially-low interest rate environment known as return-free risk. We are delighted to invest in this early stage, and potentially revolutionary, peer-to-peer lending model and provide our precious metal infrastructure to LBT clients.”
In December, Goldmoney added the Royal Canadian Mint’s precious metal storage vault to its vault network. The company was also listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in April 2016.