JWC Ventures

NO KYC this is the first and biggest cause for concern. The project look to be abandoned. Red flags on this one. I would a cautious on this project it looks to have problems.

1. The first language of the author(s) for the whitepaper is probably not English and there are quite a few typos here and there - do send your whitepaper for proof-reading in the future.\

2. JWC Ventures Telegram group is fairly big, with close to 1,300 members (as of 15 Feb 2018); https://t.me/JWCBlockchainVentures

3. I've posted several questions to the JWC Capital team via their Telegram group and is awaiting responses from the core team:

Q1: When did JWC Ventures invest in the Caganu Group?

Q2. Is this the VN registration record for Caganu: https://dichvuthongtin.dkkd.gov.vn/inf/Forms/Searches/EnterpriseInfo.aspx?h=2cb

Q3: For Caganu Group, would like to inspect its company registration (business registration / investment certificate or document includes its current shareholders & their holdings)

Q4: Is JWC Ventures incorporated in Cayman Island already and what's the registration date?

Q5: Is Nguyen Quang Huy the same person as (a) Henry or (b) Dr. Luan

Q6: How is "Biotechnology and Commodity Trade" related to any of the team members?

Q7: How is "MileFast Solution" related to any of the team members?

Q8: W.R.T. the Whitepaper, pg 14, which are the 5 exchanges?

Q9: While the background of the core team members is impressive, none of them seems to have professional experiences in terms of equity investment as a business angel or VC?

Q10: From the WP, I understand that your investment sectors are: E-commerce, Logistics, Biotech & Genetics, Advanced technology (AI, ML and Smart Transportation). How would the team evaluate the incoming dealflows, eg. do you have an investment committee made up of subject matter experts?

I may revise my ratings after receiving the answers to the above questions.

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JWC Blockchain Ventures replied on 18 Feb 2018:

Sorry for the delay of answering your questions due to the Lunar Asian New Year celebration. Below are the answers for your review:

Q1: When did JWC Ventures invest in the Caganu Group?
A1: JWC Ventures leadership team has started to engage with Caganu Corporation (eatablished in 2012) and has actively provided investment consultancy services since 2016.

Q2. Is this the VN registration record for Caganu: https://dichvuthongtin.dkkd.gov.vn/inf/Forms/Searches/EnterpriseInfo.aspx?h=2cb
A2: Please click on url: https://dichvhuthongtin.dkkd.gov.vn/inf/default.aspx then type in CAGANU in the top right search box to get all VN registration of Caganu Corporation
Basically, here are the info:
Company Name :CAGANU CORPORATION
Business name written in foreign language :CAGANU CORPORATION JOINT STOCK COMPANY
Company name :CAGANU CORP
Active status :Active
Business Code :0312009914
Legal status :Joint stock company
Date of establishment :16/10/2012
Name of legal representative NGUYEN QUANG HUY

Headquarter :Floor 19, Office Building, Indochina Park Tower, No. 04 Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, Da Kao Ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

Q3: For Caganu Group, would like to inspect its company registration (business registration / investment certificate or document includes its current shareholders & their holdings)
A3: See answer to question 2 for all public available information.

Q4: Is JWC Ventures incorporated in Cayman Island already and what's the registration date?
A4: Our JWC team has worked on JWC deals in past couple years. Per advices from legal counsels and anticipating the high successful potential and high return of investment scenarios, we had decided and already incorporated JWC Ventures in Cayman Island in January of 2018 for our JWC Token Generation Event. Cayman Island has been well-known places to incorporate of many well-known investment funds and hedge funds for many business reasons.

Q5: Is Nguyen Quang Huy the same person as (a) Henry or (b) Dr. Luan
A5: No. Mr. Nguyen Quang Huy is the legal representative of Caganu Corporation (A O2O company in Vietnam) which is one of the JWC portfolio company. Dr. Henry Nguyen is an expert in biotech and soybean in US (see his picture and bio on linkedin by clicking in his name in the JWC’s one-pager, or in JWC’s whitepaper). Dr. Luan Nguyen is an expert in blockchain, AI. ML and crowdsourcing in US (see his picture and bio on linkedin by clicking in his name in the JWC’s one-pager, or in JWC’s whitepaper)

Q6: How is "Biotechnology and Commodity Trade" related to any of the team members?
A6: Dr. Henry Nguyen is an expert in biotech and genetics in US (see his picture and bio on linkedin by clicking in his name in the JWC’s one-pager, or in JWC’s whitepaper).

Q7: How is "MileFast Solution" related to any of the team members?
A7: Dr. Luan Nguyen is an expert in blockchain, AI. ML and crowdsourcing in US (see his picture and bio on linkedin by clicking in his name in the JWC’s onepager, or in JWC’s whitepaper). Please check milefast.com for details information including bios of management team members.

Q8: W.R.T. the Whitepaper, pg 14, which are the 5 exchanges?
A8: JWC is working with more than 5 exchanges and all exchanges business discussions are currently kept confidential. We will make related and mutual announcements with specific exchanges after our ICO timeframe and at due time. It is our JWC intention to list JWC tokens on the largest and widely known exchanges as much as possible for the benefits of JWC and our investors.

Q9: While the background of the core team members is impressive, none of them seems to have professional experiences in terms of equity investment as a business angel or VC?
A9: This is not true. Please look again on bios of Frank. Luca, Luan. Matthew, Henry. All of us are angel investors in many companies. Most of JWC team members directly or indirectly participate as VC, COO of venture investment funds in US, EMEA and Asia.

Q10: From the WP, I understand that your investment sectors are: E-commerce, Logistics, Biotech Genetics, Advanced technology (AI, ML and Smart Transportation). How would the team evaluate the incoming dealflows, eg. do you have an investment committee made up of subject matter experts?
A10: Per our answers to Q6, Q7 and Q9 above, and based on the depth of intensive experiences of our JWC team in both advanced technologies and deal-flows analysis, we come up with a JWC proprietary methodology that we cannot share to the public. Basically, in order to be successful in picking and helping the execution of our portfolio companies we will have a JWC team that includes SMEs like Mr. Frank Saviane (link to investments and major companies in Europe market). Mr. Luca Mohammadi (link to investments abd major companies in SEA market), Mr. Matthew Brandt (ecommerce and links to major players in China, Europe and Israel markets), Dr. Henry Nguyen (biotech/genetics), Dr. Luan Nguyen (Blockchain/AI/ML and links to major companies in India and Middle East markets), Dr. Kenneth Tran (AI/ML/Big Data), Dr. Sherad Majeed (Healthcare and links to major companies in London and Dubai). Ms. Minh Phuong (Logistics, supply chain in SEA and with Samsung), etc.

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This is my reply following some good detailed answers from the team (dated 18 Feb 2018):

No worries for the delay in reply. It is Lunar New Year period in Singapore as well, therefore I understand.

R1: A1 is incomplete (perhaps due to language barrier). In the whitepaper, it was stated that JWC invested in Caganu but your response does not directly indicate if Caganu has received investment from JWC Ventures.

R2. Yes, the record is the same that I've found

R3. A3 is also incomplete. The reason is because it does not state the shareholdership information, eg. Name of legal representative NGUYEN QUANG HUY, but who is/are the current shareholders of Caganu?

R4. Good reply, with thanks.

R5. Thanks.

R6. A6 is incomplete also, ie. Yes, it was indicated in the whitepaper to the extent that Dr. Henry Nguyen is an expert in biotech and genetics in US", but what's unclear still is whether he (and/or any other team member) is related to the "Biotechnology and Commodity Trade".

R7. For A7, a simpler answer is that Dr. Luan Nguyen is/was the CEO/President of "MileFast Solution".

R8. Good reply for A8, with thanks.

R9. For A9, zooming in on their bio (directly from the whitepaper) as per your request.
For Frank: Stated in the WP that He was the Manager of Financial Services Unit at Goldman Sachs; founded Fast Forward Advisors and unclear if he had invested in any third-party companies in the past - perhaps it is good to revise the whitepaper to reflect any of his angel or VC investments.
For Luca: Stated in the WP that he was an IT Manager for a MNC; founded FFA; CFO at TEKY Academy; worked in KPMG Advisory; founded 2 startups and likewise, unclear if he has invested in any third-party companies in the past - perhaps it is good to revise the whitepaper to reflect any of his angel or VC investments.
For Dr. Luan Nguyen: Worked in an MNC, CEO/President of MileFast Inc.; serial entrepreneur; business leader; scientist; started a few companies but no indication that he had invested in any third-party companies in the past - perhaps it is good to revise the whitepaper to reflect any of his angel or VC investments.
My Question Q9 focused on the core team (rather than advisors) but it is good that your advisors have private equity investment experience.
Hope that there is minimal lost in translation for R9. In simplicity, entrepreneurship experience is different from angel/VC experience.

R10. In practice, with the ICO funds that you will be collecting and the companies that you are going to invest into, you will need a proper investment committee and the experiences of the core team members and advisors will definitely come handy in providing the leadership.

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Update 22 Feb 2018: I received a response from the team to my follow-on questions in R1-R10. I took some time to clean up their reply (coz' it contains some of my R1-R10 points):

Ans.R1: JWC Ventures key members did invest in Caganu as individuals before JWC Ventures was formally established

Ans.R3. Canagu currently is a privately owned company and due to confidentiality and privacy concerns, Caganu is not allowed to publishthe info that you request

Ans.R6. Please visit the tge.jwcventures.com that reflect Dr. Henry Nguyen's biogenetic's expereiences:
Dr. Henry is a Curators' distinguished professor of genetics and earned a Ph.D. in plant breeding and genetics from the University of Missouri, USA. Vice President of the Global Plant Council organization (http://globalplantcouncil.org/), Dr. Nguyen secured over 49 million USD research fund from federal agencies (USDA, NSF, NIH) and billion-dollar industry leaders (Syngenta, Rockefeller, McKnight). Co-founder of SoyTech Alliance in Missouri, USA (https://soytechalliance.com/) which is established since 2008 with a focus on soybean technology and global opportunities. SoyTech Alliance aims to work with international partners to target 500 million USD investments in infrastructure, logistics and agricultural commodity trading with US and China entities. Its business goal is to evolve the 115 billion USD global soybean market and it has a 5 million USD investment plan for the development of blockchain technology to enable a transparent global food system. Dr. Henry has served as director of the U.S. National Center for Soybean Biotechnology (http://www.soybiotechcenter.org/). He has published more than 260 articles and has contributed 35 book chapters. Dr. Henry is a Curators' distinguished professor of genetics and earned a Ph.D. in plant breeding and genetics from the University of Missouri, USA.
In addition, we have a team in background that has experiences in oil cooking and soybean commodity trading for many years.

Ans.R9i. Due to confidentiality and privacy concerns, we are not allowed to listthe names of companies per your request.

Ans.R9ii. We understand your concern and assure you that our core team has the expereinces that you asked.

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Update 23 Feb 2018: My reply:

Am afraid that the responses to R1, R3, R6, R9i and R9ii are not satisfactory.

I do applaud the JWC Ventures team for being responsive to my due diligence and would change their team score to 2.5 instead of 2 - just that ICOBench rating allows only for integer type, rather than floating-point.

I sincerely wish contributors to JWC Ventures well as the JWC team is seemingly earnest (at least to my questions).

I am not an advisor or in the team their is a video on internet that says I am . I did speak with them before but never Joined the team asked to be removed from materials

Will need to see more on this product, team and what it can truly bring to the table.

Team KYC failed, their Telegram has 5k+ members but isn't seeing a lot of action besides the usual spam stuff and general inquiries.

There are already multiple VC-esque projects and all have a hard time to get any foot off the ground.

The team is talking about DPoS, 100k transactions and almost no transaction fees. Those are some really nice promises, but I don't think this team is able to deliver any of them. Besides there is single, to no information in their WP about HOW they want to achieve this, what problems they could face, etc. Rest of the WP is rather basic as well.

Advising to stay away from this.

Brock Pierce did this at Blockchain Capital long ago so not the first VC to dabble in crypto. Team is way too small full stop. This is simply VC making an equity grab, which means accredited investors only, and they might as well just not use tokens.

It's just a weak attempt from some VC to make a land grab in the ICO space.

Let me make it clear. ICOs are not about equity, they are about foundations and open source software for the large part. This is a new dynamic and a shift from centralised parties and selective investors milking the cash cows over and over again to a more democratic model of investment which anyone can participate.

The beauty of crypto investing in ICOs, and I have told this to many VC, is that it's very liquid and you can get in and out.

With equity you are making yourself more work - and handcuffing yourself to the projects you invest in. The legal issues are a nightmare around securitisation.