THOMAS RAU: ‘IT IS TIME FOR PRIVATE CITIZENS TO TAKE FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY’
ANYONE CAN BECOME CO-OWNER OF MADASTER’S LIBRARY OF MATERIALS VIA MADASTER CONVERTIBLE BONDS WITH IMPACT
Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 21 June 2018
Today, Thomas Rau, initiator of Madaster —the materials library for real estate— symbolically received the first 6% convertible bond, as part of a financing round that was started today. It is Madaster’s mission to eliminate waste in the construction sector. For optimal involvement of the public at large, a financing instrument was chosen that provides both professional and private investors with the opportunity to become co-owners of Madaster. Rau: ‘It is about time that private citizens become involved and, thus, feel a greater responsibility for the reuse of materials. We consider the Earth a closed system, within which nothing should go to waste. The natural resource supply is finite and sometimes scarcely available. This financial construct also allows for private citizens to become co-owners of Madaster and means that financing not only depends on large, professional investors.’ The symbolically convertible bond was presented to Thomas Rau by Irma Langeraert from AndersFinancieren and Maarten van der Sanden from Symbid. The issuance of Madaster Convertible Bonds with impact will yield between EUR 500,000 and EUR 2,500,000 in financing.
CIRCULARITY REGISTERED IN MADASTER
Madaster is an initiative that is designed to be a registry of materials, starting with the construction and real-estate sectors. Madaster couples material identity to location, and registers this in a material passport that provides insight into types and quantities of materials used. For years now, Madaster’s architect and initiator, Thomas Rau, has been calling for a circularity in which building materials are reused.
Circularity is hot. Big players in the Dutch economy have already shown their support of Madaster’s objectives. For example, Volker Wessels, OVG, Triodos, AKD, TBI, Schiphol, Mitsubishi and ProRail have made sizeable financial contributions. The European Union supports Madaster with a subsidy of more than EUR 2,300,000. Nevertheless, Madaster believes it can only build a solid foundation for the future of circularity in the Netherlands by involving the general public in the expansion of its organisation.
MADASTER BELONGS TO EVERYONE
In line with the organisation’s creed, Madaster has chosen to offer both private and professional investors the opportunity to become shareholders of Madaster, starting from as little as EUR 20 per bond. Thomas Rau explains: ‘The new reality is creating new business models; therefore, we need to work together to change the soul of our economy.’
The offer is for both private citizens and professional investors and, in principle, issuance closes on 1 March 2019. The public campaign is planned to run for 30 days, but this may be extended, depending on whther public success leads to an extension of the issuance period. The type of financing was designed by the AndersFinancieren financing platform and utilises the Symbid crowdfunding platform. It offers private and professional investors a simple interest of 6%, for 5 years. There will be no annual interest payments to the bondholders, over the course of the investment period. After the five-year period, bondholders are able to convert their invested amount plus interest into certified shares.
