Nasdaq goes on attack with fintech investment programme
Nasdaq has unveiled its venture investment programme, Nasdaq Ventures, as it seeks out new fintech firms to work with in the global capital markets.
Adena Friedman, president and CEO, Nasdaq, says it plans to “accelerate the pace of innovation”.
The minority stake investments made by Nasdaq Ventures are expected to range from less than $1 million to approximately $10 million and will include seed to late-stage venture rounds.
Areas of initial focus will include digital transfer/blockchain; machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI); emerging and frontier marketplaces; and next generation data, analytics and content aggregation. According to Nasdaq, the programme will not have any material implications on its capital allocation strategy.
Nasdaq Ventures will be led by Gary Offner, who has more than 20 years of private equity, venture capital and investment experience with an emphasis on minority growth capital investments in technology companies. He was formerly an MD at Morgan Stanley.
Nasdaq says its investment programme began “unofficially” in late-2015 and has since been partnered with blockchain infrastructure provider Chain, machine intelligence company Digital Reasoning and real-time risk analytics firm Hanweck.
