The company also announced Valar founding partner Andrew McCormack and the founding CEO of DLJdirect, Blake Darcy, have joined the board, and that Citi Ventures' co-head of Global Ventures Investing, Ramneek Gupta, will be a board observer.

Trade It is the first tool that lets publishers, mobile app developers, exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuers, and financial advertisers facilitate direct securities orders via a user's existing brokerage account. Users can place orders quickly and securely from any supported Web site, mobile application, or Twitter post with a broker of his or her choice. More than 80% of orders placed to date have been from mobile devices.

"Trade It solves the three most difficult problems in mobile trading," said Nathan Richardson, Trading Ticket co-founder and CEO. "Speed to trade for users, order volume for brokers, and a direct monetization opportunity for publishers who don't want the conflict of becoming a broker-dealer."

"Trading Ticket is the first financial technology company to integrate mobile trading seamlessly into online publishing platforms," said Ramneek Gupta, Managing Director and Co-Head of investing at Citi Ventures. "We're excited to add them to our portfolio of investments that enable banking to come to the customer, empowering them to act anytime and anywhere."

Trade It won "Most Innovative Trading Solution" at Citibank's Global Mobile Challenge earlier this year, in part for the company's "maniacal focus on creating a truly distinctive client experience." Teams from 18 countries presented 77 working prototypes to Citi executives and technology influencers during the four-day event. A patent is pending on Trade It's underlying technology.

"Trading Ticket's technology position, seasoned leadership team, and strong reception with both established and new financial services players is impressive," said Valar's Andrew McCormack. "We believe the global opportunity for integrated, mobile trading is very promising and Trade It is well positioned to capitalize on its most valuable areas."

"Citi Ventures' deep expertise in markets and trading and strong relationships make them an ideal partner as we look to expand our footprint and build new inroads across the industry," added Richardson. "Valar's strategic and operational guidance is already proving vital during our rapid growth."

Trade It will be available initially on a number of leading financial mobile apps including Stock Tracker, Stocks Live, Rubicoin, and Investr. It will also be available first on financial content destinations including Benzinga, MarketWatch, The Motley Fool, TheStreet.com, and VETR.

Using Trade It is simple, fast and secure. Clicking on a company name, ticker symbol, or special short URL produces an order ticket through which a brokerage account is accessed and an order is placed.

Breaking New Ground for ETF Issuers and Financial Product Marketers

Trade It is also helping ETF providers break new ground. By integrating Trade It's application-programming interface (API), ETF issuers can for the first time provide customers with direct order placement.

"Closing the sales cycle can be challenging for ETF providers, especially when targeting retail investors," said Sebastian Benkert, marketing lead at ARK Invest. "Trade It allows visitors to instantly buy ARK's innovation funds from ark-funds.com and gives us a key conversion metric for our digital marketing campaigns."

Publishers and mobile app developers can integrate Trade It via any combination of a full API suite, ready-made widgets, a short URL that can trigger trading tickets from within Twitter posts, a software-development kit (SDK) for Apple's iOS mobile operating system, and ready-made ad units.

Finally, in addition to Trade It's order features, the company is running an advertising pilot on the Trade It order ticket.