Vela Technologies Regulatory News (VELA)

RNS Reach

12 July 2019

Vela Technologies plc

("Vela")

Update re. Interbit Ltd - product strategy and contract win with Xinova LLC

The Board of Vela (AIM: VELA) notes the announcement by Interbit Ltd ("Interbit") (formerly called BTL Group Ltd) on 11 July 2019 regarding its product strategy and a contract with Xinova, LLC.

Vela owns 620,000 common shares in Interbit equivalent to approximately 2.6 per cent. of Interbit's issued share capital. Interbit is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, on which the opening mid-market price on 11 July 2019 was C$0.70 per share. This values Vela's shareholding in Interbit at C$434,000 (equivalent to c. £264,527*).

Extracts from the Interbit announcement are copied below:

Interbit™ Announces a Product Strategy Update and Contract Signed With Xinova, LLC

CALGARY, Alberta and LONDON, July 11, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- INTERBIT LTD. (TSX Venture: IBIT) (the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the development of the InterbitTM platform, its proprietary technology platform. On April 25th the Company announced it would focus exclusively on the development of the platform and testing its performance to enable support of the commercial opportunities created by GDPR mandates and the emergence of Edge computing.

"The InterbitTM platform's fundamental building blocks have been structured to form the basis of a lightweight and practical infrastructure that provides both the ability to segregate and delete data in a transparent manner, to meet the growing concerns around privacy and the right to remove data that is now being demanded from the market," said Scott Maxwell, COO of the Company.

In Q2, Company developers completed numerous data reconciliation functions and performance tests and demonstrated that a single multi-chain installation of the InterbitTM platform was capable of supporting up to 5 concurrent nodes, with up to 100 Blockchains on each node. These tests also demonstrated the InterbitTM platform's unique chain-joining technology with a chain-join throughput of 300 transactions per second per chain-join, similar to current enterprise single blockchain solutions, while allowing for multiple chain-joins that when combined yield yet higher performance. The focus is now to demonstrate that additional nodes will distribute data over multiple blockchains to continue increasing the chain-joining throughput rate and enabling extended scalability going forward.

These advances are enabling the Company to progress the InterbitTM platform to the next stage of its development and as a result the Company has entered into a service agreement with Xinova, LLC ("Xinova") to complete a review of the code and build upon the functionality and market readiness for the platform for the solutions required by the CitizenOS project (see the Company's November 29, 2018 press release), along with other commercial opportunities. The review, which is expected to be completed early Q4 2019, will be conducted by Xinova and its global network of experts who focus on accelerating innovation by developing solutions to the problems or challenges faced by major corporations and governments.

Scott Maxwell, COO of the Company added, "Given the advantages that our multi-blockchain aims to provide, our primary focus now is to advance the InterbitTM platform to a point where it can support commercial applications and satisfy the demands of Xinova, its network and others. Xinova's review will not only provide us with external validation of our platform but also accelerate our commercial deployment and the identification of further opportunities."

Chal Davidson, Xinova's VP Business development added, "Xinova's smart and trusted network of innovators is as diverse in expertise and disciplines as it is geographically, having innovators in more than 100 countries around the world. We're excited to put the mind of the network to work and build on Interbit's recent advances towards a commercial platform."

ABOUT XINOVA

Xinova (www.xinova.com) believes problems are a good thing and leverages the power of its global network to connect the toughest problems with the smartest minds and best resources. This opens up the path to end-to-end innovation that moves companies from idea to product on-shelf faster and with more return. Xinova is headquartered in Seattle with offices in Bangalore, Beijing, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, and Vienna.

ABOUT THE COMPANY

The Company is a technology platform provider listed on the TSX Venture Exchange and operating from both Canada and the UK with offices in Calgary and London. 

For further information please contact:

Dominic McCann, CEO

Phone: +1-778-834-8417

Email: investor@interbit.ioWebsite: www.interbit.io

CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements in this release are forward-looking statements, which include further development of the Company's business relationships and business and the timing, development, launch and success of the Company's technologies and products (including, without limitation, successful development and commercialization of the InterbitTM platform), and other matters. Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding-looking wording such as "may", "expect", "estimate", "anticipate", "intend", "believe" and "continue" or the negative thereof or similar variations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which they are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, estimates, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur. These assumptions, risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the state of the economy in general and capital markets in particular, the development of competitive technologies, the marketplace acceptance of the Company's technologies and products, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in the Company's annual Management's Discussion and Analysis for the year ended December 31, 2018 available at www.sedar.com, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Forward-looking statements contained in this press release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.

The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additionally, the Company undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by, third parties in respect of the matters discussed above.

The full announcement by Interbit can be found here: https://web.tmxmoney.com/article.php?newsid=6119203243547252&qm_symbol=IBIT 

*Based on the exchange rate as on 11 July 2019 of C$1: GB£0.6095

For further information, please contact:

About Vela Technologies

Vela Technologies (AIM: VELA) is an investing company focused on early stage and pre-IPO long term disruptive technology investments. There are currently 12 investments in the portfolio which either have developed ways of utilising technology or developing technology with a view to disrupting the businesses or sector in which they operate. More recently, Vela Technologies has also started to focus on existing listed companies where valuations may offer additional opportunities. 

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