Azimut partners with Sygnum Bank to tokenize portfolio of loans to Italian SMEs

Azimut Group, one of the leading independent asset managers in Europe, has partnered with Sygnum Bank to tokenize its first portfolio of loans to Italian small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This portfolio is worth EUR 5 million and will be followed by other larger portfolios, with tokens issued through Desygnate, Sygnum’s primary market issuance platform.

  • This provides a real-world example of how tokenization can help fill the USD 5 trillion Mid Cap funding gap by offering companies an alternative route to raising capital
  • Sygnum is now building a strong pipeline of asset tokens across the Venture Capital, Mid Cap, Real Estate and Art & Collectibles verticals to create unique investment opportunities for investors

Real-world example of how tokenization can help fill the USD 5 trillion Mid Cap funding gap

Azimut was one of the first cohort of issuers announced at the launch of Sygnum’s bank-grade tokenization solution, Desygnate. In a first phase, Azimut is tokenizing a EUR 5 million portfolio of loans to Italian SMEs that will be offered to its private clients and other Azimut funds for greater portfolio diversification. This will be followed by other larger portfolios.

Obtaining financing is a common challenge for Mid Cap companies; traditional capital markets have high costs and extensive listing requirements, while approvals for bank loans demand stringent credit assessment. This has resulted in a USD 5[1] trillion funding gap, and Azimut provides a real-world example of how tokenization can start to close this by offering companies an alternative route to raising capital.

“Access to finance is a constraint to the growth of Mid Cap companies, and this is a focus of Azimut’s Synthetic Bank (Banca Sintetica)[2] project, which aims to provide EUR 1.2 billion of financing to Italian SMEs over the next four years,” says Giorgio Medda, Co-CEO of Azimut Group. “Our partnership with Sygnum in the area of tokenization will enable us to leverage the power of distributed ledger technology (DLT) to increase the efficiency and transparency of the Synthetic Bank,” he adds.

Sygnum’s pipeline of unique investment opportunities continues to build momentum

Sygnum has continued to onboard new issuers since the launch of its regulated, end-to-end tokenization solution in November 2020. The bank continues to create new investment opportunities across its four investment verticals of Venture Capital, Mid Cap, Real Estate and Art & Collectibles, including the Azimut token, allowing investors to profit from asset classes previously seen as hard-to-access in a direct and fractional manner.

In February this year, Sygnum and Fine Wine Capital, a Swiss-based fine wine investment company, tokenized a portfolio of premium investible wines that was fully subscribed within four days. This was Sygnum’s first asset token offering in the Art & Collectibles investment vertical and under Switzerland’s new DLT law.

Mathias Imbach, Co-Founder and Group CEO of Sygnum Bank says, “There is strong appetite for the investment opportunities that tokenization opens up to investors, which will support the building of more holistic, diversified and future-ready investment portfolios. We are proud to be working with Azimut, one of the innovative first movers in this space.”

Read the Azimut press release here.

[1] https://www.smefinanceforum.org/data-sites/msme-finance-gap
[2] Azimut’s Synthetic Bank (Banca Sintetica) project aims to provide EUR 1.2 billion of loans to Italian SMEs over the period of 2021-2025

About Sygnum
Sygnum is the world’s first digital asset bank, and a digital asset specialist with global reach. With Sygnum Bank AG’s Swiss banking licence, as well as Sygnum Pte Ltd’s capital markets services (CMS) licence in Singapore, Sygnum empowers institutional and private qualified investors, corporates, banks, and other financial institutions to invest in the digital asset economy with complete trust. Sygnum operates an independently controlled, scalable, and future-proof regulated banking platform. Our interdisciplinary team of banking, investment, and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) experts is shaping the development of a trusted digital asset ecosystem. The company is founded on Swiss and Singapore heritage, and operates globally. To learn more about Sygnum, please visit www.sygnum.com.

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Media Contact:
Dominic Castley
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