Datametrex Completes Acquisition of Ronin Blockchain Corp.

Datametrex Completes Acquisition of Ronin Blockchain Corp.

TORONTO, Jan. 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Datametrex AI Limited (the “Company” or “Datametrex”) (TSXV:DM) (FSE:D4G) is pleased to announce that, further to its news release of December 15, 2017, it has signed the share purchase agreement and completed the acquisition of privately held Ronin Blockchain Corp. (“Ronin”), a global industrial scale Blockchain platform with a specific focus on mining multiple cryptocurrencies (the “Transaction”). As a result of the Transaction, Ronin is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Company.

Under the terms of the share purchase agreement, the Company acquired all of the issued and outstanding common shares of Ronin for an aggregate purchase price of $10 million. The purchase price will be paid in multiple installments, with Datametrex having issued to the vendors 22,000,000 common shares of the Company at $0.25 per share and paid $2,000,000 in cash at closing. The vendors will receive an additional $2,500,000 worth of common shares on or before the first anniversary of the closing date of the Transaction, which will be issued at a price per share equal to the volume weighted average price of the Company’s shares on the TSX Venture Exchange for the twenty day period prior to the issuance of the shares. 

In connection with the Transaction, the Company paid a finder’s fee of 1,311,128 common shares to the individual responsible for introducing Ronin and the Company.

All securities issued in connection with the Transaction are subject to a hold period of four months and one day from the date of issuance.

“We are thrilled to complete the acquisition of Ronin and offer our shareholders exposure to the exciting world of cryptocurrency mining and trading. Acquiring a world-class team of directors, officers and advisors with a vision to becoming the largest crypto mining company in the world was an opportunity we had to take advantage of. The fact that the directors, officers and advisors of Ronin participated for approximately half of the $3M in our previously announced unit financing at $0.35 a unit, representing a $0.10 premium to the shares they received for the acquisition, demonstrates their commitment and belief in the strategy. We see the value of crypto mining and the specific data that will be generated as the industry matures,” said Andrew Ryu, CEO and Chairman of the Company.

About Ronin Blockchain Corp.

Ronin is a private company located in Vancouver B.C. Ronin’s objective is to become a large player in the industrial Blockchain mining sector through a concentrated focus on scale, innovative technologies and low-cost energy supply.

Ronin’s business model is based on an industrial scale Blockchain platform, which enables the company to access and manage global cryptocurrency mining. Ronin has the potential to provide state of the art mining capability across the world and to utilize its scale, beginning in China, to maximize efficiency and profitability across the arbitrage opportunities that exist for GPU-based mining. Additionally, Ronin will use its advanced Artificial Intelligence algorithms for currency and system optimization. Ronin will also use API protocols to eventually make more efficient integration from mining to mobile wallets. Ronin is currently working on identifying additional jurisdictions for mining opportunities, including Quebec, British Columbia and Eastern Europe, as it develops its international footprint.

Ronin entered into a binding Memorandum of Understanding with GoSun Group (“GoSun”). GoSun was founded in 2006 and is one of China’s largest infrastructure and networking companies with over 90 operating data centers in China.

The Memorandum of Understanding outlines the following key points:

  • An opportunity to gain access, for the purposes of crypto mining, to 10 GoSun data centers by January 1st, 2018, with a minimum of 20 racks per data center.
     
  • Access to at least 15 additional data centers per quarter for MaaS starting in Q1 2018.
     
  • Access to all 90 data centers by Q3 2019. 
     
  • “Most favored nation” pricing for all electricity and flow through pricing if the provider reduces any costs related to electricity.

The GoSun partnership will provide Ronin with access to the world’s largest Blockchain mining market with the previously discussed fundamental drivers for success: fast internet connections, low cost energy delivery, proximity to miners and equipment producers.

The following are the directors, officers and advisors to Ronin as a result of the Transaction.

Darcy Taylor, President & Director
Darcy has over 20+ years in senior leadership roles and a proven track record across multiple industries spanning, Asia, Europe and North America. A Blockchain technology enthusiast since 2013, his pan Asian experience while residing in Seoul, Korea exposed him to the potential for the technology to disrupt a multitude of industries. Prior to his international experience, Darcy was CEO of MASEV Communications Inc., that was successfully acquired by IMG Canada.

Andrew Ryu, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Chairman
Andrew Ryu is a seasoned and experienced entrepreneur and operator in public and private companies. He was a founder and CEO of TLA Inc., president of business development of Archer Education Group, and founder and former CEO of Loyalist Group Limited, which was nominated as the top TSXV company in 2013, ranked fourth in 2014, and was the top pick of the street in 2014. He was nominated entrepreneur of the year in 2014 by EY.

Jeffrey Stevens, Director
Jeff brings over 18 years of professional experience in the Canadian Capital Markets, largely focusing on raising capital for micro-cap and small cap companies. He is currently President and COO of Datametrex AI Limited (TSXV:DM) and sits on the board of one other public company. He has worked in the Retail, Buy, and Sell sides of the industry, having held positions as Assistant Investment Advisor, Arbitrage Trader, as well as having been the head of two Sales and Trading desks in Toronto. During his tenure Jeff was involved in raising in excess of $500M for public and private companies with a client base including Institutional Money Managers, Hedge Funds, Mutual Funds and Family Offices in Canada, US and Europe.

Michael Frank, Director
Michael has over 20 years of experience in the high technology sector in operations, business development, mergers and acquisitions and raising funding in the capital markets. He served as the Chief Executive Officer of Sprylogics International Corp. from July 2007 to September 19, 2011. He served as a Senior Consultant with Woods Gordon, where he managed a variety of accounts for clients using IBM mid-range systems. He also served as Vice President of Strategic Alliances at Medcomsoft Inc., where he developed and managed all key strategic partnerships to accelerate market penetration and to build market share in the healthcare industry. He served as an Executive Vice President of Hutchison Avenue Software since 1999, where he was instrumental in its sale to Intuit Corporation and has held senior sales/marketing roles at Data General and NCR. He served as Vice President of Business Development at BrandEra.com, an online marketplace for the advertising community. As Director of Mifran Consulting, he provided advisory services to emerging technology firms, including Nightingale Informatix, a leading supplier of EMR (Electronic Medical Records) technology across North America. Mr. Frank earned his Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and Finance from McGill University in 1982.

Mike Edwards, Director
A lifelong entrepreneur, Mike Edwards has started and invested in technology companies for over 20 years. Mike is actively involved in growing and supporting the crypto currency startup community and connecting local entrepreneurs with the right investors, mentors and influencers in Silicon Valley, New York, Europe and Asia.

Ronin is additionally putting together an elite Blockchain advisory board which is composed of the following individuals:

Gil Penchina
Cryptocurrency expert, who is known worldwide for his involvement and leadership in the cryptocurrency industry. Two successful initial coin offerings (“ICO”) in Brave (BAT) and Ripple (XRP). Gil also runs the largest syndicate on AngelList and was an early investor in LinkedIn, Blockstream and UXPin.

Roham Gharegozlou
Founder and CEO of CryptoKitties, the world’s most successful Blockchain game. He is also the CEO of Axiom Zen, an award-winning venture studio that specializes in applying emerging Blockchain technologies to unsolved business problems. Rohan has been working with bitcoin and various forms of Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies since 2014.

Thomas Kineshanko
Tom has been an investor in cryptocurrency and ICOs since their early days in 2012. In addition to co-founding Protos Cryptocurrency Asset Management, Tom has been a Founder and General Partner of First Block Capital, Canada’s first regulated crypto investment firm, since March 2017. Tom also co-founded Fintech Enterprises Inc., one of the first North American buy/hold Bitcoin and Ether funds, as well as the Blockchain platform Walter.ai.

Dean Sutton
Always focused on emerging technology, Dean has been in the digital asset industry since 2012 when he started in digital mining and working with teams to develop decentralized technologies. Currently he is a sought after Blockchain industry thought leader, investor and speaker, advisor to the Blockchain Association of Canada, and founder of BlockTech Ventures Inc.

Kyle Campbell
Kyle is a respected crypto software engineer. He sold his first company to Zillow Group after only 8 months. He is now working on his second company; Hack Capital, maker of CTO.ai – an intelligence product that helps any company build high performing engineering teams focusing on the Blockchain and Crypto Mining Optimization.

Visit Ronin at: www.roninblockchain.com for more information.

About the Company

Datametrex AI Limited is focused on the collection of retail sales data, providing Government Agencies and Fortune 500 corporations with Artificial Intelligence solutions and implementing Blockchain technology for secure Data Transfers and Cryptocurrency Mining.

Additional information on Datametrex is available at: www.datametrex.com.

To stay informed about Datametrex, please join our Investor Group on 8020 Connect http://bit.ly/2fPUNwF for all upcoming news releases, articles comments and questions.

For further information, please contact:

Jeffrey Stevens – President & COO
Phone:   (647) 400-8494
Email:    [email protected]

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release includes certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities laws. Such forward-looking information and statements are not representative of historical facts or information or current condition, but instead represent only the Company`s belief regarding future events, plans or objectives, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Company’s control.

Generally, such forward-looking information or statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as “plans”, “expects” or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “budget”, “scheduled”, “estimates”, “forecasts”, “intends”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, or “believes”, or variations of such words and phrases or may contain statements that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will be taken”, “will continue”, “will occur” or “will be achieved”.

The forward-looking information contained herein includes, but is not limited to, statements regarding the expected benefits of the Transaction. By identifying such information and statements in this manner, the Company is alerting the reader that such information and statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such information and statements.

Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing, and the expectations contained in, the forward-looking information and statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information and statements, and no assurance or guarantee can be given that such forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information and statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking information or statements contained in this press release.

The forward-looking information contained in this press release is made as of the date hereof, and the Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information that is contained or referenced herein, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. All subsequent written and oral forward looking information and statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in its entirety by this notice.