Heritage Distilling Announces $360 Million IP Token Reserve Program
Founded in 2011, the publicly listed American spirits company Heritage Distilling (CASK) announced on August 11 that it will collaborate with Story Foundation to launch an IP token reserve program with a scale of approximately $360 million, while completing a $220 million private investment in public equity (PIPE), attracting many well-known crypto venture capitalists to participate.
IP Reserve Program Totals $360 Million with Active Participation from Multiple VCs
Heritage stated that its IP reserve program has a total scale of $360 million, having raised $220 million through private financing, half of which is $100 million in cash and the other half is $120 million worth of IP tokens. Cantor Fitzgerald & Co. and Roth Capital Partners act as co-managers and financial advisors, while attracting several crypto venture capital firms including Story Foundation, a16z crypto, Amber Group, and Polychain Capital.
Heritage indicated that it plans to use $82 million of the financing proceeds to purchase IP tokens from Story Foundation at a fixed price of $3.40 each. The cash received by Story Foundation will be fully used to repurchase IP on the open market within 90 days. Upon completion of the transaction, Heritage will hold approximately 52.5 million IP tokens, with a market value of about $361 million based on the closing price of $6.8785 on August 10.
Introduction to Story Foundation and IP
Story Foundation is dedicated to creating a Layer 1 blockchain technology to protect creators’ intellectual property rights, allowing users to put their intellectual property (IP) on-chain and set usage terms through smart contracts, facilitating licensing, trading, and monetization with AI.
IP is the native token of Story, which can be used to pay transaction fees and can also be staked and validated with nodes to earn rewards.
PIPE Financing and Token Exchange Structure
Heritage will raise $100 million in cash by selling common stock or pre-paid warrants, while issuing common stock or pre-paid warrants to exchange for IP provided by Story Foundation at a price of $3.40 each. Other strategic partners will also exchange IP for Heritage stock or pre-paid warrants to expand the company’s IP reserve scale.
Management and Advisory Perspectives
In this regard, Story founder Seung Yoon Lee revealed that with the widespread application of AI, IP has the opportunity to become a new form of “digital gold.” This funding will be used to expand Story’s network influence and repurchase tokens, enhancing ecological consistency.
Story Foundation Board Member Matt Shaw added that this plan allows stock market investors to indirectly hold IP through Heritage stock, eliminating the need for on-chain operations, while committing to fully repurchase IP with 100% of the net cash proceeds from this IP sale within 90 days.
Advisors and Board Candidates
- Seung Yoon Lee: Story founder, CEO of PIP Labs
- Phil Blows: Proposed Chief Investment Officer, co-founder of AQRU and B2 Capital Management
- Ben Sternberg: Financial Strategy Advisor, CFO of PIP Labs
- David Lee: Proposed Board Member, former Google executive
- Erick Zhang: Proposed Board Member, founding partner of Nomad Capital, former CEO of CoinMarketCap
- Ravi Kaza: Special Advisor, Chief Investment Officer of Arrington Capital
However, following the announcement of the reserve news, the market seemed to react negatively, with Heritage Distilling’s stock price dropping by 28% on the same day.
Risk Warning
Investments in cryptocurrencies carry a high level of risk, and their prices may fluctuate wildly, potentially resulting in the loss of your entire principal. Please carefully assess the risks.