BMJ Score: 3.5
Market
Transparency
Team
Token
Adoption
Quick Summary
150 crypto investors read thisCommentary
Cybersecurity has moved away from IT basements and is now becoming a boardroom-level discussion as the cyber attacks increase in numbers and impact. Novam was inspired by the human immune system to transform the way we think about cybersecurity into an agnostic, autonomous, self-detecting and self-healing system. Novam is the first platform to leverage distributed ledger technology to record health checks, authenticate a chain of trust, and mitigate threats while allowing for forensic, regulatory compliance, and auditing capabilities. In addition to this lead time advantage, Novam also has patent-pending technology that monitors across all IoT devices to provide better visibility and flexibility. Novam will be leveraging the ETH platform and incorporating DAG (directed acyclic graph) data structure, which is a distributed ledger like blockchain, but does not incorporate blocks. Instead, it has nodes link transactions through verification before publishing them to the network. This process increases efficiency and enables better scale. We are really impressed with the team’s background in cybersecurity and IoT, but would like to see more partnerships and advisors. The token use case for Novam is interesting because it essentially couples its software license with the token to democratize the purchase of software and reduce costs associated with negotiating bulk prices. Our main concern with Novam is that its MVP will not be released until Q3 of 2019. While the project has the lead time advantage now with its technology, this industry moves quickly, and it could easily be beat by competitors. We like the team and the content that Novam has created, and to succeed, we would advise the team to proactively work on building their partners and advisors so that they can keep the competition at bay while they work on bringing their whitepaper to life.
Investment Information:
- How to invest: Interested investors can participate in the Novam pre-sale by first registering for the whitelist at the following link.
- Discount: Phase 1 - bonus 30%; Phase 2 - bonus 20%; Phase 3 - bonus 10%
- Eligibility: Under the U.S. SEC ruling, Reg D 506C, U.S Accredited Investors can participate in the private and public pre-sale of NOVAM tokens.
- Token Price: 1 MNVM = .06 USD
- Jurisdiction: United States
Market: 4.5
- Problem addressed/solved: As technology continues to be all-encompassing, threats and anomalies are more ubiquitous than ever. Malicious attacks can come from anywhere, at any time, from people and/or machines. The chances of someone or something discovering vulnerabilities, stealing private data, and doing damage to organizations and individuals are higher than ever. Exploiting known vulnerabilities, social engineering, and using data to cause damage to reputations, finances, and operations has become an industry of its own, rife with methodical experts.
- Target customers/customer/ segments/verticals: Due to the nature of the solutions, Novam has decided to focus on markets in all industries using IoT devices now and in the future. Below is a list of general market focus with layers of integration from fortune 500 organizations to OEMs and cybersecurity frms. • Hardware Manufacturers - Root of Trust, TEEChip, OEMs • Software Firms - Operating Systems, Firmware, Applications • Cybersecurity - Enterprise & consumer protection, endpoint protection & response, Threat intelligence platforms • Fortune 500 - Direct integration into security operations center • eCommerce/Digital Payments - Web/Mobile/Retail payment methods.
- Value creation: At the core, NOVAM monitors and mitigates Internet-of-Things (IoT) cyber threats using a combination of distributed ledger technology (DLT), artificial intelligence (AI), and system defense techniques.
- Competition: Novam appears to be one of the first blockchain projects to pursue security for IoT devices. It will likely have free entry to the market and will capitalize on the absence of other significant blockchain players.
- Market size/potential: Those who love business and technology but are unfamiliar with IoT should absolutely start looking into it. According to Energias Market Research, the global Internet of Things (IoT) market is estimated to reach $6.5 trillion by 2024 with an estimated 200 billion IoT devices connected. The economic value from connected IoT is estimated to be around $1.46 trillion by 2021, according to IDC[8] and $11.1 trillion by 2025 according to McKinsey Global Institute.
- Regulatory risks: WIth its focus in the security space, NOVAM must ensure it and its customers remain compliant in the data protection and privacy regulation space. This will include things such as GDPR as well as PCI, HIPAA, and SOX as Novam sites use cases for healthcare, retail, and financial services.
Transparency: 3.5
- Investor value: Investors of the Novam token can expect their value to increase as more entities join the platform and utilize its services. Having said that, The MNVM token appears to have limited functionality within the platform, so its use cases and thus its demand will be limited.
- Disclosures: Novam has a detailed whitepaper, employee bios, and roadmap, but it lacks the supporting documents that would push its score that much higher. The whitepaper definitely goes into plenty of detail so the need for supporting documents might not matter for some investors. However, Novam should look into drafting an ICO document, as details on the actual token sale are hard to come by.
- Token distribution: 30% public sale, 20% long term budget, 19% marketing, 15% private pre-sale, 10% team, 5% advisors, and 1% bounty program.
- Use of proceeds: Novam doesn’t seem to disclose its plans for fund usage after the completion of the ICO.
- Caps: Soft cap: $500,000 USD; Hard cap: $2,076,923 USD
Team: 3.5
- Track record: The first thing that becomes apparent when looking at the Novam project is that their team only consists of four people. The team has average LinkedIn accounts with a few members over 500 while others are still trying to hit that mark. If Novam wants to expand its network and really build this project to completion, it should at least look into acquiring high-level advisors. The CEO, Adam Perschke, has partnered with his brother, Ian Perschke, to start this project. Adam specializes in corporate technology innovation and business development and is a serial entrepreneur while his brother Ian has worked in IT in both leadership and consulting roles for over a decade, allowing him a deep understanding of complex data and IT structures.
- Integrity: A small, tight-knit team like Novam can sometimes operate more efficiently and with a higher level of trust among members compared to a massive project. The strong relationships within the team will ensure a common goal in getting this project off the ground, but if Novam wants to be recognized as a legitimate project, it must expand and acquire advisors who can help its case.
- Adam Perschke, CEO (LinkedIn)
- Ian Perschke, Head Enterprise Architect (LinkedIn)
- Brooks McMillan, Head of Security Operations (LinkedIn)
Team Members
Token Mechanics: 3.5
- MVP: According to the roadmap, Novam doesn’t plan to actually start developing its product until Q2/Q3 of 2019. Its primary concerns appear to be marketing, legal, and building the team.
- Token use case: The NOVAM token is a utility software license that provides access to the network and platform for services that include monitoring and mitigating threats, auditing, and regulatory compliance. Novam does not indicate whether or not MNVM will be used to pay for services on the platform, but it is evident that the key to the platform is an authentication token.
- Value-added: The addition of a utility token coupled with the Novam software license provides additional benefits for democratizing the purchase of a software license. In addition, it reduces costs associated with negotiating bulk prices, paying for licenses, and company time to initiate.
- Decentralization: Novam is not using a traditional blockchain architecture like Bitcoin or Ethereum, but rather a Directed Acyclic Graph architecture for security, scalability, and interoperability with enterprise systems.
- Token Supply: Max supply of 2 billion MNVM
User Adoption: 1.5
- Technical difficulty/investment expertise needed: NOVAM monitors and automatically mitigates threats to IoT devices and provides auditing & compliance investigation for enterprise. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of IoT devices, Novam has an explanatory video on YouTube that breaks down the project.
- Halo effect: In the hyper-detailed roadmap presented by Novam, it appears to have set up a push for partnerships in Q1 of 2019 once the main sale starts rolling.
- Buzz: Novam might have the least buzz of any early investment project reviewed by BMJ. A few of its accounts have less than 10 followers while its Telegram only has 44 members. The project’s only attention has been from a few notable ICO rating sites that have picked up the ICO and put it on their pages. Only a few sites actually have activity on the Novam page.
