Gabriel Abed and Oliver Gale Positively Disruptive

Just five years after co-founding Bitt Inc., young Barbadian entrepreneurs Gabriel Abed and Oliver Gale are already seasoned warriors in the fintech arena, having battled their way through swathes of red tape and dogged resistance from the traditional banking sector to firmly establish themselves as leading pioneers in the world’s financial technological revolution.

Like most young start-ups, Gabriel and Oliver struggled to remain financially viable, especially when cryptocurrency went through two years of recession. Literally on the brink of collapse, their saviour turned out to be a Trinidadian investor, Peter George of Avatar Capital, who boldly invested his first US$400,000 into the company on the strength of a single presentation. Refinanced and reinforced, Bitt expanded rapidly and, step by step, started to overcome the many regulatory roadblocks that continuously obstructed their path.

In February 2016, Gabriel and Oliver made history when Bitt launched the Barbados digital dollar, the first fiat currency ever pinned to a blockchain. That unprecedented transformational achievement compelled the superstars in the cryptocurrency world to sit up and take notice, including Dr Patrick Byrne, the renowned American entrepreneur, CEO and founder of Overstock.com, who invested an initial US$4 million into Bitt, followed by another US$3 million in March 2018.

Significantly, Overstock was the first publicly traded company and the first billion-dollar company to accept Bitcoin as payment.

Having successfully launched mMoney in Barbados, a mobile money app that operates similarly to a debit card but through the user’s smartphone, and with the capacity to also receive money, Bitt has engaged Central Banks throughout the Caribbean to provide the same service. Ultimately, mMoney will enable users to complete transactions on their mobile devices that have traditionally only been done through banks. That kind of positive disruption is a key goal for a business that was conceived as a blockchain company that could make a difference, rather than just a means to make money.

According to Gabriel and Oliver, ‘Bitt is now a beautifully run company with an incredible management team led by CEO Rawdon Adams’. That stability within the company has enabled the two visionaries to take a lateral step, retaining their places on the Board and working in an advisory capacity, but with the renewed freedom to independently pursue their latest new ventures.

Watch this space!