- Capitolis announced it closed a $40 million in Series B round of funding led by Spark Capital and SVB Capital
Capitolis announced it has completed a $40 million Series B round of funding led by Spark Capital and SVB Capital. And existing investors Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and S Capital also participated in the round. Including this round of funding, Capitolis raised $70 million in total so far. This round of funding will support Capitolis’ next phase of rapid growth, including the expansion of its technology platform, functionality, and product offering.
Capitolis was launched in 2016 by Traiana founder (acquired by ICAP) and former EBS BrokerTec CEO Gil Mandelzis, former Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer, and former Traiana EVP and head of technology Igor Teleshevsky. Currently, Capitolis has 55 employees across NYC, London, and Tel Aviv.
“In less than a year, Capitolis’ platform has been adopted by many of the world’s leading banks and hedge funds and is creating very meaningful resource benefits. Capitolis’ technology has already eliminated trillions of dollars of transactions notional to date, and with the new investments from Spark and SVB Capital, development is underway to expand the functionality and platform further. With our exceptional and growing team and strong appetite for our solutions, we are confident that our technology will be further adopted by institutions around the world,” said Mandelzis.
In conjunction with this funding round, Spark Capital partner Jeremy G. Philips is joining the Capitolis board. Philips is the former EVP for the office of the chairman at News Corp. and the former CEO of Photon Group.
“The passion and energy that Gil, Tom, and the team bring to transforming the way that capital markets operate are what first caught our attention. Capitolis is on a multi-trillion dollar mission to reduce risk in the global financial system while improving returns. We are privileged to partner with them on this exciting journey,” added Philips.
What is Capitolis’ goal? Capitolis has a vision of efficient and safe global markets, which is achieved by connecting participants through a technology platform to provide maximum capital efficiency and optimization.
“Capitolis has developed a marketplace for institutional capital where supply and demand meet. By connecting all the parties in the market more efficiently, Capitolis removes bottlenecks that are limiting the flow of capital. The response from leading banks and other financial players has shown a growing need for such a platform, and we’re excited to continue to support the team as they scale,” noted Index Ventures partner Jan Hammer.
And by utilizing proprietary technology, Capitolis has developed a platform through which financial institutions are able to collaborate, reduce capital utilization, and find the most attractive sources of capital thus resulting in higher returns on capital and greater liquidity in global markets.
“To transform a whole industry, you need to have a bold vision and serious dedication. Gil has both of those and more. We are thrilled to be backing him again and to be working alongside such a great team of innovators,” stated S Capital founding partner Haim Sadger.
Ever since Capitolis launched its proprietary platform, the company now has over 50 financial institutions live on its system — which has recorded transaction volumes of $1.5 trillion notional. And this year, notional transaction volumes have increased by 25x compared to last year.
“It is very gratifying to us that some of the world’s most successful investors have chosen to back our vision for safer, more efficient and more profitable capital markets leveraging Capitolis technology. We now have the funding, the management team, and the core customer adoption to grow Capitolis into a major industry infrastructure and force,” explained Glocer.
Now the business has a range of products available to customers, including Novations (platform that allows users to optimize their positions, view and change their desired parameters and execute resulting optimizations), Marketplace (provides clients real-time capability to find through technology the cheapest and most appropriate partner to hold positions executed elsewhere), and Finance (helps institutions create new positions to facilitate significant balance sheet efficiencies while simultaneously providing access to new short-term positions that investors can use for effective cash management, leveraging state of the art workflow technology).
“It is the nature of capital markets to constantly innovate, but it is exciting to find businesses that can make such a fundamental leap in how participants interact and improve the management of their portfolios. Gil and the Capitolis team have the potential to unlock intrinsic value at all stages of the financial ecosystem through their innovative technology,” commented SVB Capital partner Tilli Kalisky-Bannett.
