TransFICC lands £5.75m from AlbionVC, ING and HSBC

Written by Ruby Hinchliffe
1st May 2020

TransFICC, a London-based e-trading technology fintech, has landed a £5.75 million Series A led by AlbionVC, with new investors ING Ventures and HSBC also joining the round.

The firm’s new backers join existing shareholders Citi, venture capital firm Illuminate Financial, Commerzbank’s research and development unit Main Incubator, and The FinLab, a joint venture between United Overseas Bank and the Singapore government-owned SGInnovate.

TransFICC says it will use the fresh capital to boost the market coverage of its product

The fintech provides solutions for the fixed income and derivatives markets, particularly helping firms with low-latency connectivity and workflow services.

Its solutions are designed to help solve market fragmentation. Its ‘One Application Progamme Interface (API) for eTrading’ provides banks with connectivity to multiple trading venues, whilst simultaneously supporting various workflows across asset classes such as rates and credit bonds, and interest rate swaps.

Each bank TransFICC works with looks to connect with between 35 and 75 different trading venues.

“Banks and asset managers are demanding technology solutions which deliver automation and increased efficiency, but they also want a modern and flexible modular design,” TransFICC’s founder Steve Toland says in a statement.

“Our four bank shareholders will help us to closely align our services with client requirements, meaning we are well positioned to capitalise on banks and asset managers looking for a modern fintech alternative to legacy systems,” Toland adds.

Existing investor Citi says its close relationship with TransFICC has allowed it to pave the way to “a new operating model” with start-ups

TransFICC says it will use the fresh capital to boost the market coverage of its product for both existing customers – which include global investment banks and market data firms – and prospective clients.

Leading investor AlbionVC’s partner Robert Whitby-Smith believes TransFICC’s API has “a huge opportunity to become the defacto standard API gateway between banks and trading venues”.

Fellow new investor ING’s head of market structure and innovation Stephane Malrait says banks need to update their legacy systems with automation as the fixed income market structure is “changing rapidly”.

“In addition, banks need to reduce their technology costs and TransFICC is addressing all these issues at a rapid pace,” adds Malrait.

Existing investor Citi says its close relationship with TransFICC has allowed it to pave the way to “a new operating model” with start-ups within the bank, having co-created alongside the fintech’s dev teams in its innovation lab.