South African fintech startup Troygold, which enables gold owners to digitise physical gold and use it for day-to-day transactions via a mobile app and gold-backed Mastercard, already has over 5,000 users across its two markets – South Africa and Singapore. Founded in 2018 by brothers Bastiat and Dane Viljoen, Troygold digitises gold bullion and Krugerrands and then allows customers to buy, sell, spend and borrow against their gold. Vaulted gold bars or coins with serial numbers are digitised via Troygold’s system, offering whole or fractional ownership. Gold is directly allocated, and customers receive an ownership certificate showing which bar or coin and what serial number they own, as well as where it is stored. “Troygold’s mission is to solve the access and liquidity problems of owning physical gold. We’re building the financial tools to allow gold, history’s oldest form of money, to function alongside fiat currencies in the modern financial system,” Bastiat Viljoen told Disrupt Africa. The company currently has storage facilities in Johannesburg and Singapore. Troygold currently offers two options to customers – a free gold savings account that digitises the customer’s gold stores of value, and a Mastercard-backed gold debit card that enables gold owners to purchase goods and services at any of the 40 million Mastercard-accepting stores worldwide.
SOURCE: DISRUPT AFRICA