By Chris Wack
Ault Global Holdings Inc. said its BitNile Inc. subsidiary was the lead investor in a $15 million Series A offering from Earnity Inc., a California-based decentralized finance marketplace.
The holding company said institutional investors Thorney, an Australian Securities Exchange-listed LIC company, and blockchain fund NGC Ventures joined the Series A investment round as well.
Ault Global said the investment is in line with its plan to split into two public companies by pursuing a spin-off of Ault Alliance Inc. to its stockholders. Following the spin-off of Ault Alliance, the company, through BitNile, will be a pure-play provider of Bitcoin mining and data center operations, pursuing DeFi-related initiatives.
Ault Alliance will continue its focus on the company's legacy businesses and more recently initiated operations, including lending and investing in the real estate and distressed asset spaces, among others, defense, and power solutions, including electric vehicle charging products.
Ault said Earnity has raised more than $20 million in 2021. Earnity expects to formally launch its beta platform early in the first quarter of 2022.
As part of the investment, Ault Global's Executive Vice President of Alternative Investments, Christopher K. Wu, will join Earnity's board of directors. Earnity and BitNile have agreed to form joint ventures to develop and co-promote portfolios of non-fungible tokens and other DeFi products and protocols.
Ault Global shares were up 5% to $1.57 in premarket trading.
Write to Chris Wack at chris.wack@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
12-06-21 0715ET
