Lombard Systems, a financial technology company developing collateral infrastructure for tokenized securities, has raised $4 million across pre-seed and seed funding rounds led by Ethereal Ventures. The investment will support adoption of the company’s Delivery-versus-Lock (DvL) standard, which lets financial institutions use tokenized assets as loan collateral without transferring them out of existing securities accounts.
The financing included participation from Alps Capital, First Commit Capital, Veris Ventures, Atka, and other investors.
Previously operating under the SemiLiquid/PCP name, Lombard Systems develops technology and legal frameworks intended to modernize secured financing involving digital assets.
Its DvL standard seeks to address a gap between the growing availability of tokenized securities and the traditional infrastructure used for collateralized lending.
Tokenization allows securities and other financial assets to be represented through digital records, potentially supporting more efficient transfers and settlement.
However, financing arrangements involving such assets can still require complicated legal documentation, custody changes, and manual enforcement procedures.
Lombard Systems’ approach allows tokenized assets to remain in accounts maintained by custodians, broker-dealers, or transfer agents while being locked as collateral for a financing arrangement.
The lender receives a security interest documented through a cryptographically signed Credit Receipt.
Under the proposed structure, borrowers retain beneficial ownership of the pledged assets, with agreed enforcement procedures governing delivery of amounts owed following a validated default.
The company intends to support this approach through both technical infrastructure and legal opinions establishing how the framework operates under applicable securities and financing laws.
The new capital will help fund legal analysis in the United States, England, Wales, and five additional jurisdictions.
Lombard Systems will also expand institutional integrations and relationships with organizations capable of maintaining collateral under the DvL standard.
The platform is being designed for several applications, including Lombard loans, margin lending, financing backed by tokenized money market funds and stocks, securities lending, and collateral arrangements involving uncleared derivatives.
Financial institutions will be able to adopt the technology through white-label integrations within their existing systems or through technology partners.
Lombard Systems is targeting its first institutional deployment by the end of 2026.
It also expects to publish the complete DvL standard during the first quarter of 2027.
The company’s operations are based in Dubai and New York.
The financing supports its efforts to establish standardized collateral arrangements as banks, securities firms, and asset managers evaluate the use of tokenized financial instruments.
KEY QUOTES:
“Tokenized stocks and funds are scaling now. Origination and enforcement of loans against tokenized collateral have to be as fast as the assets can move, while staying grounded in existing securities law. DvL keeps assets in their existing securities accounts and gives lenders enforceable rights, with enforcement agreed upfront. That is what turns tokenized assets into usable collateral.”
Rico Van Der Veen, Co-Founder And CEO Of Lombard Systems
“Tokenization is creating real opportunities for financial institutions in trading and settlement, with significant potential to extend those benefits into financing. Lombard Systems is building a critical piece of that infrastructure with DvL, a standardized framework for financing tokenized assets.”
Eeshaan Sachatheva, Co-Chief Investment Officer At Ethereal Ventures
