Steve Wozniak is by no means a serial entrepreneur. Since starting Apple with Steve Jobs in 1976, he’s only said yes to getting involved in “about two” business opportunities. The second one came yesterday, and it has to do with blockchain.
The Woz is now officially a co-founder of EQUI Global, a venture capital fund that operates on the Ethereum blockchain to let investors trade in the open market using cryptocurrency—specifically, a token called EquiToken. This would lower the barrier of entry for potential investors, making room for “non-institutional” investments, as EQUI suggested in an October 15 Medium post.
Not surprisingly, Woz gets tons of business pitches every day, “in fact dozens of them,” he said in an EQUI video announcing his role in the company. “This is about the second time in 20 years that I actually said yes, I want to be a part of this.” You can watch the full interview below, where Woz—no word on his actual financial stake, by the way—discusses his plans for EQUI with founder Doug Barrowman and co-founder Baroness Michelle Mone, OBE (which, in case you didn’t know, stands for “Order of the British Empire”).
Meanwhile, Barrowman sees Woz’s value in terms of investors. “I think that the market investors will respond accordingly,” he said. “They will welcome the fact that Steve has given us such a glowing endorsement.”
EQUI will mostly invest in tech companies, but around 20 percent of its investments, according to the Medium post, will go to “non-tech assets” like real estate and art.
The Woz’s endorsement is a powerful one. By backing blockchain-powered investments in all these possible future tech superstars, he’s throwing blockchain behind, perhaps, the next Apple. Or at least that’s what EQUI would like investors to believe.