England’s Metaplanet? The Smarter Web Company eyes IPO with bitcoin strategy

Web development company The Smarter Web Company will debut on public markets in the U.K. as early as April 2 with bitcoin on its balance sheet and an explicit mandate to buy more, according to public filings reviewed by Blockspace.

Under the proposed ticker SWC, The Smarter Web Company will issue an initial public offering (IPO) on the Aquis Exchange through a shell company it recently acquired, Uranium Energy Exploration Plc. It expects to raise approximately £2,000,000 (~$2,578,000) from the offering.

CEO Andrew Webley told Blockspace Media that The Smarter Web Company holds BTC on its balance sheet – but declined to reveal how much – and it plans to add to these holdings. “The Company is pioneering the adoption of a Digital Asset Treasury Policy into its strategy and as the Company explores opportunities through organic growth and corporate acquisitions it will look to store its capital in a mix of cash and Digital Assets including Bitcoin,” the company’s IPO pro forma reads.

Notably, Tyler Evans, co-founder of Bitcoin conference parent company BTC Inc. and its investment arm UTXO Management, is listed as a director of The Smarter Web Company. Webley mentioned that UTXO management invested in the company pre-IPO and is classified as a "significant investor” under U.K. reporting rules, meaning it owns more than 3% of the company.

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The Smarter Web Company has already invested excess capital into bitcoin and accepts it as a payment method. To acquire more in the near term, Webley said that it will use equity raises but that it “might do [convertible notes]” in the future to play both debt and equity markets. Convertible notes, where a lender issues a loan to a company that can be redeemed in cash or equity, has become the favored fundraising vehicle of bitcoin treasury pioneer Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), among other Bitcoin companies like MARA and Riot Platforms.

Founded in 2009 by Webley, The Smarter Web Company provides web design, web development, and online marketing services. Unlike other bitcoin treasury companies, which have made bitcoin acquisitions the primary focus of their businesses, Webley said that he intends to use his company’s bitcoin strategy to attract capital flows that will augment its core business.

"The Smarter Web Company has been offering affordable, high quality, web design and online marketing solutions for the last 15 years. Like many businesses we have to consider how we can grow to the next-level and I believe that we can unlock capital with our treasury strategy to then grow our business which would not be possible without this forward-thinking approach to Digital Assets (Bitcoin),” Webley said.

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The bitcoin strategy goes global with The Smarter Web Company and others

Once public, The Smarter Web Company will be the latest company on the international stage to adopt a bitcoin treasury strategy, and the third such that has direct involvement from UTXO Management as it continues to export Strategy’s playbook overseas. 

Japanese public company Metplanet is the most recent darling of the strategy, and its Head of Bitcoin Strategy, Dylan LeClair, also holds a partner position at UTXO Management. Evans is an independent director at Metaplanet as well. The company currently holds 3,350 BTC as of its most recent update on March 26. UTXO Management also acquired Hong Kong-listed HK Asia Holdings Inc. (rebranded as Moon Inc.) in January to replicate the bitcoin treasury strategy in that market.

For companies adopting a bitcoin strategy – and for the investors that want exposure to them – Webley said that there are many benefits to local listings, but it boils down to making it easier for locals to invest in such companies. To start, it lowers the cost to invest as buyers don’t have to pay forex fees or navigate international brokers. Principally, however, local listings can tap into deeper liquidity pools with institutional investors that have local mandates. 

“In the U.K., as with most other countries, you'll have fund managers that say they run a U.K. equities fund, for example, and they can only invest in UK equities. So, if they want to get some exposure to, say, Bitcoin, for example, then they can't really do it unless they find a decent U.K. equity that's got some bitcoin exposure,” Webley said.

What started in 2020, when Strategy’s first bitcoin buy trailblazed the bitcoin treasury strategy, is evolving into a multi-jurisdictional business model. 

“Not all investors want to play international stocks, so having a home grown one is advantageous to the whole Bitcoin community…You can have multiple companies in every jurisdiction doing the strategy, because sometimes some companies will do better than others,” Webley concluded.

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