Kula, an impact investment firm, has released a new governance crypto token, $Kula. This new governance and utility token provides investors with access to an ever-growing stake in Kula’s treasury and its diversified portfolio of real-world assets. Kula looks for ways to further improve their new companies’ and projects’ environmental and social impact. They’re using blockchain technology to bring even more transparency to these efforts. The firm’s innovative decentralized governance-first approach is to realizing this vision, creating a proven governance-first model for real-world assets to maximize long-term impact and sustainability.

Kula's investment strategy is sector and region agnostic, encompassing projects ranging from a hydropower plant in Nepal's Tsum Valley to a sustainable forestry initiative in Malaysia's Sarawak region. At the asset level, Kula represents its share and the investee's share of the company through the issuance of illiquid tokens. That’s why giving community stakeholders a voice at the asset level and governance level is so important, co-founder Micah Yeackley said.

Blockchain for Transparency

One defining characteristic of Kula’s approach is their use of blockchain technology to make their investments more transparent. This is especially important for any company doing business in sectors known to be opaque at best.

"For companies struggling with issues such as corruption, the blockchain can mitigate a lot of that by making transactions visible to investors," - Micah Yeackley

Kula standardizes transactions to make them more transparent and to attract investors. These new investors seek both impact and the reassurance that comes from holding companies accountable.

"We’re trying to make a difference by applying the transparency of blockchain to generally opaque industries. We’re not setting out to completely eliminate corruption or the negative impacts, but if we can move the needle in the right direction and make these industries a little more transparent for investors, then we’re making a positive difference," - Micah Yeackley

Investments in Action

Kula has so far built an impressive track record in proving out its impact investment model. One of its key investments is a mountain-sized concession – 500 square kilometres of limestone concession in Zambia’s Eastern Province – in partnership with Bekazulu Mining.

This investment has made a difference in improving how they access water for operations and surrounding communities. It did this by finding and drilling a new aquifer system. The project has reduced water stress on the semi-arid area as well. These concrete enhancements illustrate Kula’s resolve to not only produce quality work, but to significantly impact the community with their investments.

Kula displays its ownership percentage at the asset level. It reflects the investee’s ownership stake in the company by giving out illiquid tokens.

$Kula Token and Governance

Their recently launched $Kula token provides token holders a share of Kula’s treasury. Further, it provides them unfettered access to all of Kula’s underlying investments. Even more crucially, it gives them governance rights, to sit at the table and shape the decisions that get made.

"We think the true incentive of this model is giving a voice at the asset level but also at the governance level. So, if you hold a token at the governance level you get to vote on which assets you think are going to benefit our portfolio," - Micah Yeackley

This governance-first approach connects deeply with the goal of aligning capital with community-led development. It encourages a progressive model of joint economic engagement and value development.

"Through decentralised decision-making, the platform aligns capital with community-led development, supporting a new model of shared economic participation and value creation. The only difference is that instead of selling stocks or shares, we’re selling digital tokens, which represent not just a stake in our treasury but also a stake in the governance of the assets." - Micah Yeackley

Kula’s unique ownership distribution is deepened and protected by blockchain technology. It draws on existing real-world legal structures, such as LLCs and limited companies, to ensure the resulting equity split is legally binding.