Fintech Sharegain raises $5m and rolls out securities lending platform
Fintech start-up Sharegain has raised $5 million to support the roll-out of its securities lending platform to private banks, online brokers and robo-advisers, as well as scaling up its operations with family offices and asset management firms.
This round takes the firm’s total raised capital to $12 million over two rounds, and comes from venture capital firms Blumberg Capital, Target Global, Maverick Ventures Israel, Rhodium and private investors from the financial industry.
Sharegain’s platform allows any investor to generate revenue through loaning out their financial assets – stocks, bonds and ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) in return for a payment known as ‘lending revenue’.
According to Sharegain, securities lending is a $2.5 trillion market, but this represents a tiny proportion of the industry’s potential – there are over $40 trillion in assets currently sitting idle, globally.
Sharegain, which claims to be the first fintech with FCA approval to offer its SLaaS platform to retail investors, aims to create a more transparent and effective market that’s open to any investor with all the benefits that will bring, from greater liquidity, to better data, to eventually building long-term trust in capital markets.
The Sharegain team is led by Boaz Yaari, CEO and co-founder, who claims to have 14 years’ experience in capital markets, including roles as a derivatives trader at a top-tier bank, and portfolio manager at various European hedge funds. The names of these brands weren’t disclosed.
“The old way of securities lending was complex, opaque and outdated, in a ‘need to know’ system that few understood and even fewer controlled,” says Yaari. “Now, for the first time, it is effortless, effective and open to any investor. We’re excited to be on-boarding investors globally and helping their wealth work harder for them.”
An undisclosed group of lenders are already using the Sharegain platform; the business is also collaborating with global financial institutions to drive best practice and a more transparent approach to securities lending.
