BMJ Score: 3.9
Market
Transparency
Team
Token
Adoption
Quick Summary
200 crypto investors read thisCommentary
What we like about Lili is that its blockchain-based business model introduces efficiencies that’ll cut costs and democratize the wealth management industry for individual investors, small fund managers, and family offices. What we don’t like is that it’s entering a crowded market of new wealth management players and lots and lots and lots of traditional ones. Red flag: Not much chatter on Reddit.
Investment Information:
- How to invest: Buying the LIL token is reserved exclusively to the whitelisted community members who passed the AML and KYC checks. Tokens can be purchased using Ether (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC) and Euro (EUR).
- Discount: 30% bonus during the presale.
- Eligibility: Excludes residents from the U.S., China, Syria, Libya, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, South Sudan, and Cuba.
- Token Price: 1 LIL = 0.001 Ether or 1 Ether = 1,000 LILs
- Minimum investment amounts: EUR 250, ETH .5, BTC .05
Market: 3.5
- Problem addressed/solved: In general, the top challenges for private investors considering a financial product include a lack of financial understanding and not being part of a financial culture. With little understanding of financial fundamentals, private investors lack confidence and shy away from sophisticated investments and instead opt for vehicles that guarantee their capital.
- Target customers/customer/ segments/verticals: Lili is targeting private investors looking for a better way to safely invest their money. The Lili platform can also be utilized by small wealth management firms and family offices to help those private investors, giving them an additional revenue stream. Lili is also targeting beginner investors who are looking for advice.
- Value creation: Lili offers the public an additional opportunity to invest their money with more information as to what exactly is happening to their investment. They’re giving investors a platform where they can benefit from verified crowd wisdom, meet top financial experts, compare offers, and control their personal risk. By deploying the monetization protocol on a public blockchain, Lili democratizes wealth management by cutting costs and offering the best secure conditions for sharing information with the transparency required by authorities.
- Competition: Lili will be competing in a saturated market. They’ll have blockchain competition along with traditional investment platform competition. They can surpass their competitors by making sure they emphasize the attributes that make their project unique.
- Market size/potential: The market for this project, especially in the blockchain industry, is huge and will continue to grow. Finance is the unanimous #1 industry that blockchain will impact the most, and Lili fits perfectly into that category. That said, Lili could be too niche. Lili’s success will be contingent upon both the market of individuals looking to find access to savings and investment services, as well as the number of financial advisors that choose to market their services through the platform. In addition, many beginner investors choose to put small amounts of money into their crypto, and Lili’s 250 Euro price of entry might prevent their target market from participating.
- Regulatory risks: According to lawtrust, “legal status of cryptocurrency in France is not determined… yet given the fact that Emmanuelle Macron, current President of France, is positive about cryptocurrencies, the changes are possible for the better.” That said, there is still a high bar Lili will have to reach with regulations involving PCI and SOX.
- Blockchain is taking the finance industry by storm, which can be both a good and bad thing for projects like Lili. Lili is entering an industry that has a need for Fintech and innovation, but it’s also a heavily saturated market. Lili will face plenty of competition on their route to success. Having said that, the Lili team believes they create a unique value in that the platform is the first marketplace and the first comparator of allocations, Portfolio Models, and Allocators. 3.5
Transparency: 4.5
- Investor value: Investors will derive value from this project as more users join the platform. This particular project could have a rapid increase in token value since the max supply is much lower than most other projects.
- Disclosures: The whitepaper is a lengthy 64 pages. Lili made sure to give investors more than enough information. They also provide an “information about the company” section after a series of detailed employee descriptions. Lili’s roadmap goes beyond the call of duty, describing each step they intend to take up until 2020.
- Token distribution: 70% presale/main sale, 18% team, 10% advisors, 2% bounty program
- Use of proceeds: Lili does not provide exact percentages on how funds will be allocated, but instead uses a graphic image. (See https://lili.am/images/allocation.png.)
- Soft cap: No indication of a soft cap. Hard cap: The hard cap will be 20,000 ETH (if this amount is reached, the ICO will close early).
- Lili has one of the most detailed whitepapers we’ve seen in quite some time. They don’t try to hide their operations, giving investors all the information they possibly can. On top of that, you can find members of the Lili team on forums responding to concerns that potential investors have about the project. 4.5
Team: 5
- Track record: Jean-FrançoiAndro, the CEO, has 30 years of experience in IT for Banks & Asset Managers. He’s also the founder of three financial software companies. The COO, Serge Balatre has 25 years’ experience in Asset Management and Securities Services at Invesco AM and Société Générale in various management positions. It appears each member of the core Lili team has decades of experience in either Asset Management IT or straight AM. The team members have excellent backgrounds for this particular project.
- Integrity: The Asset Management industry has many obstacles that you must go through before you’re allowed to manage other people’s money. This includes background checks, certifications, and plenty of legal documents to ensure your practice holds the utmost integrity. Having a group of Asset Managers running this ICO leaves little doubt that the project is headed by qualified, trustworthy individuals.
- The Lili team has all the top qualities that you look for when evaluating an ICO project: relevant experience, professionalism, and trustworthiness. Now all that remains to be answered is whether they will live up to the expectations that come with having a strong team? 5.0
- Jean-François Andro, CEO (LinkedIn)
- Serge Balatre, COO (LinkedIn)
- Joseph Cordahi, Asset Management/IT Specialist (LinkedIn)
- Edouard Villier (former COO of JP Morgan Mansart Investments) (LinkedIn)
Team Members
Token Mechanics: 4
- MVP: Prototype deployed in October 2017. It’s currently only open to MSc Finance students for beta testing. Lili was also awarded the Label Finance Innovation, granted to the best innovation projects in the French financial industry.
- Token use case: The LIL token is a utility token, required to access Lili's services and tradeable against other cryptocurrencies.
- Value-added: The LIL token represents the most common use cases for new tokens; it provides users access to the platform and will be used for virtually every transaction that occurs on the Lili platform.
- Decentralization: The Lili marketplace is a decentralized peer-to-peer network.
- Token Supply: Total max token supply of 36 million.
- Lili’s prototype winning the Finance Innovation award bodes very well for their MVP and its quality. Their token functions as a basic utility token that will be used to access and transact on the platform. Lastly, their max supply of 36 million tokens keeps the supply low, which could mean solid returns for investors. 4.0
User Adoption: 2
- Technical difficulty/investment expertise needed: Lili is a unique platform that gives users the power to control their investments in new ways. Almost everyone can gather a basic understanding of the project. Lili is working to help with one of the biggest challenges in both the crypto and financial industry: making the market mainstream and accessible to the layman.
- Halo effect: Lili lists four different partners on their site including Finance Innovation and Market Management Consulting. Most of their partners are either business- or legal-related, so there's nothing special that sparks an investor’s interest. The team definitely needs to work on forming more partnerships, advisors, and a foundation to encourage use.
- Buzz: The Lili project needs to stir up some buzz as soon as possible. They only have 55 Telegram followers and less than 15 Facebook and Twitter followers combined. Additionally, there is very little information on Reddit, which is a red flag. Having said that, they’ve stated in their whitepaper that 50% of funds raised during the ICO will go toward marketing.
- Lili needs to ramp up their marketing efforts soon; otherwise, people will bypass their project altogether. It’s good they have partners listed on their website, but none of them add a “wow factor”. 2.0
