TransFICC, a provider of low-latency connectivity and workflow services for Fixed Income and Derivatives Markets, has closed its Series A investment round for £5.75 million, the firm announced today.
Led by London-based investment firm AlbionVC, it included new strategic investments from ING Ventures and HSBC.
The new investors join existing shareholders, Citi, Illuminate Financial, Main Incubator (the R&D unit of Commerzbank Group) and The FinLab.
The investment will be used to extend product and market coverage for existing and new clients. TransFICC’s current clients include five global investment banks and one global market data vendor.
TransFICC resolves the issue of market fragmentation by providing banks and asset managers with a unified low-latency, robust and scalable API. Its ‘One API for eTrading’ platform provides connectivity to multiple trading venues while supporting a variety of workflows across asset classes such as rates and credit bonds, and interest rate Swaps . TransFICC enables financial institutions to access their required eTrading venues, while streamlining technology requirements and reducing operational costs.
“Banks and asset managers are demanding technology solutions which deliver automation and increased efficiency, but they also want a modern and flexible modular design. Our technology solution addresses the significant issue of market fragmentation, while enabling trading firms to cut costs and develop a technology stack combining outsourced and in-house technology,” says Steve Toland, Founder of TransFICC.
“Our four bank shareholders will help us to closely align our services with client requirements, meaning we are well positioned to capitalise on banks and asset managers looking for a modern Fintech alternative to legacy systems,” he adds.
Investors' comments
“We believe TransFICC has a huge opportunity to become the defacto standard API gateway between banks and trading venues. This view is supported by TransFICC’s five banking clients and an extensive prospect pipeline,” Robert Whitby-Smith, Partner at AlbionVC, says.
Stephane Malrait, Head of Market Structure and Innovation at ING, notes that the Fixed Income market structure is changing rapidly, and banks need to evolve their legacy systems with simpler and innovative technology solutions that enable them to increase the automation of trading workflows.
“Banks need to reduce their technology costs and TransFICC is addressing all these issues at a rapid pace,” he says.
“Working with TransFICC as part of our Innovation Lab has been extremely positive. Providing the company with office space in our lab allowed Citi and TransFICC development teams to work side-by-side and co-create very rapidly, integrating development and testing processes to deliver and release value-add functionality on a daily basis. Our experience with TransFICC has paved the way for a new operating model for Citi with start-ups,” Stuart Riley, Global Head of Operations and Technology for Markets and Securities Services at Citi, adds.
