Capital markets fintech PrimaryBid names Fiona Richards as COO
PrimaryBid, a London-based capital markets fintech that brings individual investors into public company fundraisings, has appointed Fiona Richards as chief operating officer (COO).
Fiona Richards, COO of PrimaryBid
Richards joins PrimaryBid from Rowan Dartington, the discretionary investment arm of St. James’s Place, where she was also COO and board director.
She brings deep insight into fintech build-outs and international capital markets with over 25 years’ regulated industry experience across consulting and investment banking at Deutsche Bank, HSBC, UBS, and Accenture.
Richards will report to PrimaryBid’s CEO Anand Sambasivan and will assume responsibility for global business operations and strategic planning.
Commenting on her appointment, Richards says the company’s “track record to this point speaks for itself”.
In early 2022, PrimaryBid announced a $190 million Series C investment round, led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2.
A partner of London Stock Exchange and Euronext, it has been used by more than 250 FTSE and AIM companies including Severn Trent, Compass Group, Taylor Wimpey, Ocado, Croda, and Aston Martin. The firm conducted 32 fundraisings for FTSE and AIM companies in 2022.
In October last year, it launched its pan-European “Connect” distribution architecture, an open-access technology enabling investment platforms, wealth managers, retail brokers, IFAs, and fintechs across the UK and in the European Union to offer IPOs, placings, and bonds directly to their retail investor customers.
The fintech says it has also strengthened its team across key business areas such as information security, data science, distribution partnerships, product, and compliance over the past six months.
It is now looking to expand geographically as well as grow its product set.
