# VC Summary Analysis - Aplo By [Neoledge](https://paragraph.com/@neoledge) · 2023-03-10 --- **Mission Statement**: Regulated one-stop shop for institutional crypto trading. **Value Proposition**: Aplo (ex SheeldMarket) offers an institutional crypto asset trading platform, with an aggregator algorithm across +15 exchanges to benefit from the best execution price, and an encryption scheme enabling to keep the positions of the market participants private. Aplo is one of the few companies to have obtained both PSAN accreditation and EU-licensed broker. **Market**: A survey made by Fidelity Digital Assets shows that 7 in 10 global institutional investors plan to allocate a portion of their portfolio to crypto assets in the near future. Moreover, of the 1,100 respondents, more than half declared to have already invested in digital assets. Demand for crypto assets is constantly growing since private, professional, and institutional investors are seeking an asset class to diversify their portfolio, hedge against inflation, or simply take advantage of the gorgeous performances’ potential. However, there is a major problem: plenty of exchanges are available, with different account opening processes, and prices can considerably vary from one exchange to another. Furthermore, a survey conducted by Nickel Digital Asset Management pointed out that the main reasons preventing institutional investors from investing in crypto were the quality of custodial services (76%), the size of market/liquidity (76%), or the regulatory environment (71%). Stressful points that Aplo is answering. Total addressable market: During the month of January 2023, $797b was traded across the largest crypto spot exchange according to The Block Legitimate Index, from an all-time high exchange volume of $2.13t in May 2021. **Competitive landscape**: The competition facing SheeldMarket is observable through three categories: 1. Brokers/Investment banks: one is Taurus, a Swiss-regulated firm, and investment bank alike. The platform offers various services for professional investors, and it allows them to trade crypto as well as other asset class, such as equity, bond, and so on, but in a tokenized format. 2. Centralized exchange: precisely Swissborg, the centralized exchange for private investors, with an aggregation method called Smart Engine to connect multiple exchanges (Binance, Kraken, LMAX, HitBTC, and Bitfinex) in order to buy and sell at the best price on the market. 3. Decentralized aggregator: such as 1inch or Paraswap. These are platforms searching for the best way to make a trade across multiple DEX (Uniswap, Sushiswap, ...). SheeldMarket is facing competitors, and some are already big players. Nevertheless, the start-up is differentiated by its specialization on the institutional segment, with its aggregation technology, and finally, the confidential dark pool trading. **Team**: The three initial co-founders have strong academical degrees and seems to know each other since 2015 when they started studying at the ISAE-SUPAERO. Oliver Yates – CEO: Multiple experiences in Blockchain development. He started by building an insurance smart-contract for a top french insurer within Euler Hermes Digital Agency. Have been in charge of a research project on Ethereum security exploits at his university laboratory. At Merkle Data he built Data Mining tools for the Bitcoin and Ethereum Blockchains, in order to create risk & trading signals. Simon Douye - COO: His background includes designing and building an all-electric car, onboarding institutional customers at an early stage HR-tech company and designing better algorithms for the Bitcoin Lightning Network. Arnaud Carrere – CTO: Multiple experiences in the Blockchain sector. Firstly, as a blockchain developer for the IBM Hyperledger blockchain. Then, as a Data Scientist for the French Blockchain Research Institute. Jacques Lolieux – Head of Trading and Research: 25 years of experience in equities trading and technology. As the head of Electronic Market Making at Credit Suisse, he built CrossFinder EU - one of the largest cash equity Dark Pools in the world. François-Xavier Del Boca – Head of Sales: Spent his all career as Sales in well-known international banks (Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Lehman brothers). **Recommendation**: I recommend the investment in Aplo (ex SheeldMarket) considering its high scale-up potential, thanks to a strong, qualified team that has previous experiences in both the Blockchain sector and traditional financial markets. Indeed, the potential of the platform can expand way further than only aggregation on centralized exchanges. DeFi seems to be the next step for the start-up, with a possible aggregation of DeFi protocol. In addition, the CEO expressed his vision of the bank in the future, and he is convinced that exchanging fiat for crypto is just the beginning. A lot more assets could be tokenized and tradable, such as real estate, arts, goods, and so on. Then, it is possible to expect more tradable assets on the platform. --- *Originally published on [Neoledge](https://paragraph.com/@neoledge/vc-summary-analysis-aplo)*