Crypto Startup TokenPay Buys Equity Stake in Heidi Klum Lingerie Maker
Revealed in a filing Wednesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Switzerland-based startup has spent $1.3 million for a 6 percent equity stake in Naked Brand Group (NAKD), the Australian lingerie company best known for supermodel Heidi Klum’s signature fashion lines.
TokenPay CEO Derek Capo told CoinDesk the move is part of the startup’s broader diversification strategy following a December 2017 token sale that netted 2,000 bitcoin, or roughly $20 million. Spending token sale proceeds on equity investments has been a hedge against crypto market volatility, Capo said.
Still, it may take until 2020 or beyond for shoppers to buy Klum’s lingerie with TPay tokens. (We’ve reached out to NAKD for comment and will update if we hear back.)
Speaking of the startup’s investment in this lingerie company, Capo added:
They [NAKD] also mentioned they are interested in working with a blockchain company for logistics. We’re interested in them accepting TokenPay’s merchant services platform so that they can accept crypto across all of their brands.
Those merchant services would allow private purchases of negligee using TokenPay’s native token, TPAY, because the coin utilizes the Tor network to hide users’ IP addresses. Unlike most assets used in 2017 token sales, TPAY is not ethereum-based. Capo said 32,000 people participated in the 2017 sale by purchasing TPAY with bitcoin.