It is not always necessary to conduct an ICO in order to attract investment in a project. Perhaps large investors evaluated the project at an early stage.
In February of 2019 the team of the project changed. I do not know what it was before February, but after February the project have shown a very good results of development.
If you look at the graph of this coin, you can see just significant changes at this particular time. That is, we can conclude that the change of team went in favor of this project.