GLMX, a comprehensive technology solution for the trading of repurchase agreements (“repo”) and secured lending, just announced that it has raised $20 million in growth equity financing. The investment will help the firm expand its operations into major European markets and bolster its engineering team following a record year in which its client base doubled, and weekly trading volumes exceeded $68 billion.
GLMX’s request-for-quote (RFQ) based buy-side-to-dealer trading platform has been expressly built to enhance the relationship between buy-side and sell-side counterparties, and addresses the need for a more efficient repo trading infrastructure, particularly in light of increasing regulatory reporting requirements.
The platform, launched in February 2016, and available to clients using fully-redesigned, advanced architecture since January 9, 2018, provides a highly scalable back-end, rapid feature development, comprehensive data tools and direct connectivity to multiple portfolio management systems.
The funding was led by Sutter Hill Ventures, one of the U.S.’s oldest and most successful venture capital firms, serving Silicon Valley and the broader technology industry. Also participating in GLMX’s equity raise are Otter Capital and Tippet Venture Partners.
Global repo markets are in the midst of significant change, driven by evolving capital needs and regulatory requirements. As an example, in the UK and Europe, MiFID II and SFTR pre and post-trade reporting demand a new level of data capture which, if available at all, currently relies on expensive and time-consuming manual intervention,” said Glenn Havlicek, CEO and co-founder of GLMX. “We’ve rolled out a fully redesigned, state-of-the-art solution that is specifically intended to streamline workflows between the buy and sell sides and to automate their trade reporting obligations.
GLMX is seamlessly upgrading the way the buy and sell-side interact across the complex and heavily-regulated money markets,” said Andrew Sheehan, Managing Director at Sutter Hill Ventures. “We’re excited to be working with a company like this, which is combining experts from both Silicon Valley and Wall Street.
In contrast to all-to-all, or peer-to-peer models, GLMX intuitively and electronically replicates the manual workflows that are broadly in use today, enabling easy adoption and limited disruption for market participants.