Codebase Ventures is in the business of Bitcoin while also funding tech innovation and cannabis

• Venture capital company with a recent investment in Bitcoin mining infrastructure
• Has invested in companies such as blockchain company Arcology and ICO Ranker
• Subsidiary Code Cannabis Investments focused on the expanding CBD market in North America and Europe

What Codebase Ventures does:

Codebase Ventures Inc (CSE:CODE) (OTCMKTS:BKLLF) is a tech-centric investment firm. The venture capital company invests in early-stage technology and cannabis companies and is made up of a team of financial and technology experts. 

The Vancouver-based company aims to take stakes in fledgling companies with a focus on investing in those with “outstanding talent, teams and technology,” according to the firm’s website. 

Codebase has a number of companies within its portfolio including stakes in the blockchain company Arcology, as well as investments in ICO Ranker, the standard for reviews and analysis of token sales, and Blockchain Ranker, a business-to-business directory of blockchain software, service providers and platforms.

Arcology, in which Codebase owns a 30% stake, runs a hierarchical blockchain that uses proprietary algorithms and artificial intelligence to eliminate inefficiencies that hinder rival blockchain platforms. ICO Ranker is a collaborative platform for the rating of ICOs and blockchain projects. 

The company also targets early-stage assets and startups in the emerging and promising cannabis sector through its subsidiary, Code Cannabis Investments. For now, the company is focused on the expanding market for CBD products in North America and Europe.

London-listed World High Life PLC is the crown jewel of Code Cannabis’s portfolio. World High Life is focused on backing or acquiring companies operating in the CBD wellness and medicinal cannabis industry and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Love Hemp, is a leading CBD supplier in the UK.

Codebase Ventures is led by CEO George Tsafalas, an entrepreneur who has extensive experience in senior operational management, corporate business development and corporate finance in the private and public sectors. He is currently a senior partner at Stadnyk and Partners Inc, specializing in the execution of strategic budget plans and monitors the development of the portfolio programs. 

How is it doing:

Codebase has had a focus on Bitcoin mining and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) so far in 2021, while its other investee companies have also made progress in cannabis and pharmaceuticals.

On April 6, Codebase revealed that it had invested £100,000 for a 50% equity stake in London-based NFT start-up, InstaCoin. NFTs are the new and most popular way to sell digital content across the world, Codebase said, but until now the focus has been on large-value sales. The InstaCoin app is meant to bring the creation and auction element to the everyday person.

InstaCoin, which is positioned as the world’s first self-serve social NFT platform, will allow users to connect their social profiles to the blockchain and create instant NFT tokens from their own content. Followers and fans connect in the open market for immediate sales. Codebase is a founding investor in InstaCoin and was previously a significant investor in TRAD3R, the simple app that creates an easy-to-navigate simulated stock market.

Then, on April 19, Codebase announced that InstaCoin had submitted its NFT app to the Apple App Store platform. The app is designed to simplify the creation of NFT assets from a user’s social media. It has gone through extensive scale and blockchain testing, the company said and has full language compatibility with the Chinese markets and European block.

Turning to bitcoin mining, on May 6 Codebase announced that in the face of industry-wide supply delays, it had amended its old agreement for bit infrastructure, to ensure “certainty on timing, as well as greater profitability with the same number of rigs.” 

Thanks to the changes, Codebase said it will now receive for the same price, 115 Bitmain Antminer S17+ 76Th miners, replacing the previously announced Canaan A1246 miners. In addition to the speedy delivery, Codebase said Bitmain remains “one of, if not the most dominant and well-respected manufacturer of bit mining equipment in the industry.”

Codebase had announced in mid-March that the first tranche of 115 state-of-the-art Canaan A1246 its Bitcoin mining machines were being prepped for immediate release to its hosting facility in upstate New York. The company agreed to pay $2.5 million to acquire the bit mining infrastructure in the US for long-term revenue generation. 

Earlier in the same month, the company revealed that it had engaged seasoned investor and entrepreneur Jacob Chernoff in order to maximize results for the company’s Bitcoin mining operations and ongoing blockchain investments. Codebase noted that Chernoff has worked with a number of public companies over past six years, evaluating and revising blockchain-based business proposals, raising seed capital, and deconstructing complex technical aspects of blockchain and cryptography into an easily-digestible format.

Staying with crypto, in May Codebase portfolio company Arcology announced that it had wrapped up another showcase of an optimized version of DSToken which is used by some of the most popular Ethereum-based applications like MakerDAO’s DAI. Arcology said that the showcase is a “great first step towards interoperability” and opens up the possibility for complex decentralized applications to be redeployed from their existing blockchains directly onto Arcology’s platform.

Back in March,  Arcology said it had optimized its version of the CrytpoKitties blockchain platform. Arcology considers CryptoKitties, which allows users to collect and breed digital cats, to be the “most popular game on the Ethereum blockchain.” It noted that when the game debuted in 2017, its popularity congested the Ethereum network to the point that noticeable shutdowns hurt the performance of other apps. 

And in February Arcology also revealed the successful deployment of version 2.0 of its Testnet system. Codebase said Testnet 2.0 also includes the unveiling of Ammolite 1.0, Arcology’s custom-built Python application programming interface (API), which allows developers to query blockchain data from browser, built wallet, and other applications.

The company noted that since its launch in 2020, Testnet has “consistently achieved very high results” with more than 33,000 transactions per second (TPS) running decentralized applications written in Solidity, a programming language most famous for being the basis for Ethereum’s smart contracts.

Away from cryptos and NFTS, on June 22 another Codebase investee company Love Hemp Group PLC revealed that it has teamed up with boxing champion Anthony Joshua in a new endorsement agreement. The three-year agreement will see Joshua, a two-time World Heavyweight Champion and Olympic gold medallist for the UK, become an ambassador for the CBD brand and contribute to the firm’s wellness promotion.  Longer-term, Love Hemp and Joshua will also collaborate on a licensed range of CBD products for athletes. 

And in April Codebase provided an update on the continued development of its proposed transdermal delivery technology for hydroxychloroquine (HCQ).  The company said it had engaged TRPL (Transdermal Research Pharm Laboratories) of Long Island City, New York, to conduct a feasibility study — which indicates that HCQ has all the required parameters to be a transdermal candidate. 

Moreover, in recognition of the potential value of this legacy asset and in light of the company’s current focus on the blockchain and related emerging technology ecosystem, Codebase said it is investigating spinning out its interest in the transdermal delivery technology for HCQ. 

Codebase noted that it has a 49% interest in Glanis Pharmaceuticals Inc, an arms-length private company that holds provisional US patents for transdermal and oral mucosal delivery of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine (CQ). The drug has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a treatment against malaria, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis. On the basis of positive results from the feasibility study, Codebase said the parties are beginning the process from a provisional to a full patent.

Inflection points:

• Revenue from Bitcoin mining infrastructure
• Progress on NFT apps
• Growing sales of Love Hemp, LH Botanicals and other World High Life products
• Increasing portfolio of companies through further investments

What the boss says:

Announcing the investment in InstaCoin in April, Codebase CEO George Tsafalas said: “Code has worked with the principals behind InstaCoin through our existing TRAD3R investment and we continue to be very excited by their innovative approach within the blockchain ecosystem,”

“Our existing relationship put us in a position to seize this opportunity, which allows Code to establish a 50% equity position at an early stage of the venture that aims to democratize NFT’s rather than focus primarily on multi-million-dollar individual components.”

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Story by ProactiveInvestors