Chris Turner, co-founder of the Kula group: “Maurice has agreed to support innovation in a sector that is still developing”

Impact investment company Kula, which has obtained regulatory approval from the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in Mauritius for the issuance of its digital token, wants to demonstrate that blockchain can be used to finance real projects and monitor their impact. Kula group co-founder Chris Turner explains why Mauritius was chosen as the regulatory basis and how this model intends to bring together investors, businesses and local communities.

You have been in Mauritius for about a year. How do you evaluate this period and your progress?

I find the experience in Maurice very interesting. During a recent meeting with the FSC, a question was asked: “How does the world see us? »

I think Mauritius is already recognized in the digital assets sector, particularly by international financial services players. But there is still work to be done to raise awareness of what is being done in this area.

Before arriving here, we spent almost three years searching for a jurisdiction capable of accommodating our business model. We met with several regulators around the world, but as it is a new sector, many did not know exactly how to supervise us.

We started in Switzerland and then explored other jurisdictions. Each time, the difficulty was similar: our model did not correspond to the existing regulatory categories.

Finally, thanks to contacts in Mauritius, we presented our project to the FSC. After several months of discussions, the FSC agreed to grant us a regulatory framework for the issuance of our governance token.

For us, this is an important mark of trust. Maurice agreed to support an innovation in a sector still under construction. This also creates a responsibility: we want to contribute positively to the Mauritian ecosystem.

The country has strong experience in financial services and a strategic positioning towards Africa, which also represents an important market for us.

However, there remains training and awareness work to be carried out, because digital assets and blockchain still remain new concepts for many people.

For many people, digital tokens still remain abstract. What is it exactly?

It's true that digital assets remain difficult to understand for many people. It should be remembered that this sector is still young and that it has also suffered from a bad image due to certain scandals linked to cryptocurrencies.

But our approach is different.

We are not a cryptocurrency company. We are an impact investment company that uses blockchain technology to provide greater transparency.

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