Deutsche Börse Invests in Derivatives Fintech

As part of their USD 19.5 million Series B equity funding round, DB1 Ventures has acquired a minority stake in WeMatch, a fintech company digitizing the wholesale derivatives industry. The deal closed on 30 September 2021. Other investors in the funding round included Augmentum Fintech PLC, Illuminate Financial and existing shareholder J.P. Morgan.

We are now a minority shareholder of @WematchL! The company has enormous potential to help the capital market industry in further adopting digital solutions across multiple markets globally.

Learn more: https://t.co/wZhpGPk8eC pic.twitter.com/re0Ds7EJqV

— Deutsche Börse Group (@DeutscheBoerse) October 4, 2021

WeMatch develops web-based solutions to replace voice broking by automating matching, negotiation and lifecycle management for instruments such as securities borrowing and lending, total return swaps, interest rate derivatives, as well as equity derivatives. It provides market participants with a one-stop solution across a range of assets, cutting costs for clients, increasing efficiency and reducing conduct risk for traders.

The investors believe in the enormous potential for WeMatch to help the capital market industry in further adopting digital solutions across multiple markets globally, and to apply this technology to internal and client-facing solutions.

“The digitalization of workflows combined with seamless access to large liquidity pools at market infrastructure providers has been driving the collaboration between WeMatch and Deutsche Börse; hence, this investment makes perfect sense and further strengthens our partnership.” says Matthias Graulich, Member of the Eurex Clearing Executive Board at Deutsche Börse. “It is a win-win from our perspective – Deutsche Börse will benefit from WeMatch’s agility and innovation power, and WeMatch will benefit from our deep liquidity pools and strong global distribution power facilitating further growth for both firms.”

“We are thrilled to have completed this Series B and to welcome DB1 Ventures, Illuminate Financial, and Augmentum Fintech PLC as new investors, in addition to receiving the continued support from our existing shareholders,” says Joseph Seroussi, WeMatch co-CEO. “The combination of the significant synergies with a leading European exchange like Deutsche Börse, the continued support of our banking partners J.P. Morgan and Société Générale, and the contribution of impactful Fintech VCs like Illuminate Financial and Augmentum, will help us deliver our project to digitize capital market workflows on a global scale for both sell-side and buy-side Institutions.”

Tim Levene, CEO of Augmentum Fintech, says: “At Augmentum we have been convinced for some time that innovative fintech solutions could improve capital market efficiency. WeMatch is already active in multiple asset classes and is leveraging technology to change how market participants interact, helping reduce operational risk while controlling costs thanks to their differentiated subscription model, and as such fits our thesis.”

“In many markets the levels of adoption of electronic trading varies hugely between the cash instruments versus their derivatives,” says Mark Beeston, Founder & Managing Partner at Illuminate Financial. “Securities lending and most derivatives remain heavily voice traded and attempts by platforms to digitise these markets have largely failed. We are excited to partner with the experienced team at WeMatch who have already built multiple fit for purpose solutions in this significant market. We look forward to connecting them to our partner network and supporting them through their next phase of growth.”