18 October 2017

Vela Technologies plc

("Vela")

Update re BTL Group Ltd

The Board of Vela (AIM: VELA), the investing company focused on early-stage and pre-IPO disruptive technology investments, is pleased to note the announcement made yesterday by BTL Group Ltd ("BTL") regarding Interbit, BTL's proprietary private blockchain technology platform.

Vela holds, as at the date of this announcement, 610,900 common shares in BTL equivalent to approximately 3.3 per cent. of BTL's issued share capital. BTL is listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, on which the closing mid-market price on 16 October 2017 of BTL's common shares was C$4.82 per share which values Vela's shareholding in BTL at approximately C$2.94 million (equivalent to £1.78 million at today's prevailing exchange rate*). In addition, Vela holds a total of 66,666 warrants in BTL. 41,666 warrants are exercisable at a price of C$1.50 for a period expiring on 17 December 2017 and 25,000 warrants are exercisable at a price of C$3.25 for a period expiring on 6 April 2019.

Extracts from the BTL announcement are copied below:

BTL™ Files Patents on Connected Blockchain Platform Interbit™ and Underlying Hypervisor Architecture

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA and LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM--(Marketwired - Oct. 17, 2017) BTL GROUP LTD. (TSX VENTURE:BTL) ("BTL" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has filed patents on its enterprise blockchain platform Interbit™. Interbit is a third generation blockchain platform with unique 'connecting' capability developed by BTL after it became apparent that second generation blockchains would not scale to meet enterprise demands as the technology matures. BTL confirmed through pre-commercial and confidential beta testing that its Interbit platform consistently exceeds customers' requirements in many sectors, including finance and energy.

"Interbit now has the capacity to operate and inter-connect many thousands of Interbit blockchains per server in a secure, private, and scalable manner. We realized very quickly that single blockchain solutions such as current generation two offerings would not allow blockchain technology to fully realize its transformative capabilities in the years ahead - we needed Interbit to scale far beyond what already exists in the blockchain space. Our new capabilities clearly define what generation three blockchains are capable of," said Tom Thompson, CTO of BTL. "During our successful pilots we have proven Interbit's privacy and scalability capabilities, securing it as a recognized enterprise grade blockchain platform. Interbit has also been designed for ease of use by customers, allowing it to be integrated into existing IT infrastructure in a quick and simple manner, not seen before in our industry."

Interbit allows practical creation of blockchain-based solutions through JavaScript applications. Designed specifically to address modern enterprise requirements and to position the Company with an industry leading blockchain solution, Interbit is currently in beta after being in development over the past two years. The Interbit Hypervisor is Interbit's underlying architecture designed to enable "chain-connecting" which allows for multiple, inter-connected blockchains to operate at scale, while maintaining privacy where required. The patent filings are an important milestone in BTL's growth as it clearly defines the Interbit platform's unique features and is an integral part of progressing projects with existing and new clients going forward.

"Filing patent applications for the Interbit platform allows us to position BTL as a leader in the blockchain technology space as it clearly defines our offering as a highly scalable enterprise blockchain development platform with interoperability embedded. We are very close to delivering Interbit into a live environment as a product that will leapfrog all existing blockchain technologies. This will position the Company to meet and exceed the increasingly complex demands for blockchain solutions across all industries," said Dominic McCann, CEO of BTL. "Blockchain technology must meet the security and scalability expectations of the enterprise and be easy to work with before enterprise adoption will scale. Interbit, delivers on both."

Scalability & Privacy via the Interbit Hypervisor

The patent pending Interbit blockchain platform and its underlying Hypervisor architecture addresses scalability and privacy, two key challenges that blockchain technology faces in order to make it relevant to enterprise, as follows:

1.   The Interbit Hypervisor architecture enables thousands of Interbit blockchains per server to operate and connect efficiently with one another.

2.   Connecting Interbit blockchains will allow:

a.   solutions to scale horizontally, targeting combined network throughput rates in the hundreds of thousands of transactions per second;

b.   solutions to hold enterprise scale data volumes targeting the petabyte range; and;

c.    n etworks of blockchains to communicate with one another directly.

3.   The Interbit Hypervisor was built from the ground up to address one of the main challenges for blockchain technology: ease of use. Developers use familiar tools and languages when building on Interbit.

4.   Written in pure JavaScript, the Interbit Hypervisor runs natively in modern browsers allowing direct access to Interbit blockchains without needing to first connect to a server - the browser becomes one of the nodes.

ABOUT BTL™ AND INTERBIT™

Listed on the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX VENTURE:BTL) and operating from both Canada and the UK, BTL is an enterprise technology platform provider that is developing Interbit, a proprietary third generation blockchain platform. Via Interbit, BTL can help companies greatly reduce risks and costs by securely streamlining existing IT infrastructures. BTL has successfully demonstrated how Interbit can innovate and transform existing business processes for leading companies in the finance, energy and gaming sectors.

Interbit is a fast, private, and scalable inter-connected blockchain platform. Via its suite of APIs and smart contracts, Interbit allows businesses around the world to improve efficiency in trading and operations, accelerate development of internal systems, and embrace new revenue generating opportunities, while providing the high levels of security, resilience and auditability required in regulated enterprise environments.

With offices in Vancouver and Calgary, Canada and London, UK, BTL is positioning itself as a front-runner in the blockchain ecosystem, partnering with and enabling enterprises on Interbit in order to improve their existing IT systems.

Website: www.btl.co

Twitter: https://twitter.com/blockchainltd

Videos: https://youtu.be/YFOH0YEHLak and https://youtu.be/V614_0UtHws

*Based on the exchange rate as on 17 October 2017 of C$1: GB0.603793.

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