Trumid raises $53 million from Singapore Exchange

Trumid,
a fintech startup, has raised $53 million in a new funding
round.

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Electronic trading startup Trumid, which is backed
by venture capitalist Peter Thiel and hedge fund pioneer
George Soros, just raised more money.

The firm said on Tuesday it had landed $53 million in a new
funding round to help grow its existing US corporate bond
business, and to expand its platform to Asia. 

The latest round was led by Singapore’s stock exchange, Singapore
Exchange, along with Deutsche Boerse, the German stock exchange
operator. 

“Asian investor participation in US corporate credit
markets is increasingly important,” said Mike Sobel, Trumid’s
president. “We look forward to leveraging SGX’s established
network in Asia to deliver global access to US dollar credit
product.” 

Launched in 2014, Trumid matches buyers and sellers in the
bond market
at a time when some investors are complaining about reduced
liquidity.

Two years later,
the firm revamped its strategy after struggling to gain
traction and last year
,
it merged with rival Electronifie, a platform led by
former Goldman Sachs trader Amar Kuchinad.

Trumid has a network of 400 buy-side and sell-side
institutions on it. Its daily trading volume last quarter
increased by three times compared with the same period in 2017,
according to the company.

Corporate bond trades totaling over $5 million in size are
difficult for investors to execute, according to a March report
from research firm Greenwich Associates. While these large
trades only make up 1% of the total orders in the market on a
given day, they make up over 40% of the notional traded, which is
leading to solutions like Trumid.