VANCOUVER, British Columbia and TORONTO, April 30, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DLTA 21 Blockchain Corp. (“DLTa21"), a global blockchain development company, and Shufl, Inc. (“Bunz”) (www.bunz.com), a Toronto-based online social bartering platform, are pleased to announce they have formed a strategic partnership to launch Bunz’s brand and technology platform in Japan.
The new partnership (the “Bunz JV” or “Bunz Japan”) will combine Bunz’s rapidly growing social bartering platform with DLTa21’s team of experts in Japan and Canada. The new company will initially focus on introducing the Bunz platform to a test market and demographic in Japan before expanding its reach to other densely populated areas throughout the country. DLTa21 will have a 70% majority interest in the Bunz JV with Shufl, Inc. owning the remaining 30%.
Through Bunz Japan, DLTa21’s established team of marketing, blockchain and finance professionals will provide Japanese users with an innovative and cashless second-hand marketplace and community to exchange goods and services. The initial launch is expected to take place in June 2019 with other markets in Japan to follow thereafter.
Matthew Hornor, Executive Chairman of DLTa21 stated, “We are thrilled to partner with Bunz on launching this innovative and equitable platform into a market which has shown a preference for equitable social engagement. We plan to leverage our Japanese team’s decades of local experience to culturally adapt the Bunz platform to meet the unique and specific needs of the Japanese market.”
Paul Chan, Chief Operating Officer of Bunz, stated, “We are excited to introduce our platform to Japan. Japan represents a unique opportunity and strategic market for Bunz to expand into, and we see great alignment with our ethos of sustainability and community. I look forward to working alongside the DLTa21 team to learn, grow and serve the community in Japan.”
Bunz was created in 2013 as a Facebook group of like-minded friends to engage and trade every-day items and services. In 2016, it evolved into a smartphone app with additional features to enhance the user experience. The app currently has a base of approximately 310,000 users in Toronto and Vancouver who have completed more than a million transactions, with over 2.5 million items currently on offer. In April 2018, Bunz launched its digital currency, BTZ (pronounced ‘bits’), which provides users with a cashless way to reduce the friction of barter trades of items with disparate values. Users earn BTZ for watching in-app advertisements, participating in branded surveys and engaging with (participating in) other users on the network. BTZ can be instantly sent to anyone on the Bunz platform at no cost and spent at any of Bunz’s more than 200 local, partner businesses in Canada.
B. Matthew Hornor, Executive Chairman of DLTa21, said, “Japan has a large sharing economy and is experiencing tremendous growth in ‘danshari’, which can loosely be described as ‘decluttering’ or the movement to dispose of unwanted possessions. Bunz was able to capture almost 1% of the population of Canada for its user base in less than three years. With three and a half times the population of Canada and three times the GDP, we see a tremendous opportunity to rapidly expand Bunz’s user base in Japan and elsewhere in Asia Pacific.”
The launch of the Bunz JV is contingent on the Company raising the necessary funding and receipt of all requisite regulatory approvals in Japan. While customers in Japan will be the initial focus of Bunz Japan, the parties hope to expand to other Asian markets as well.
For more information, contact:
DLTA 21 Blockchain Corp.
B. Matthew Hornor, Executive Chairman
Email: mh@dlta21.com
www.dlta21.com
Shufl, Inc.
Paul Chan, Chief Operating Officer
Email: paulc@bunz.com
https://bunz.com/
Forward Looking Statements
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