BondEvalue, a Singapore-based debt trading platform for the masses, has raised $6 million in its Series A round of fund raising, with MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia and Citigroup among the new investors
Established by former traders at Citi and DBS, BondEvalue provides retail investors with access to fractional ownership of bonds in smaller denominations of $1000.
Investors using the platform can buy and sell 'BondbloX', which are $1,000 fractions of traditional wholesale bonds, via their bank or broker.
The firm recently launched a joint venture (JV) in Mexico that is headed by Jaime Zenizo, previously head trader for HSBC Mexico. The JV will form a Peso bond exchange and represents the first local currency expansion by BondEvalue.
The latest round brings the total raised by the company, which has signed up both Northern Trust and Citi as custodians, to $10 million
BondEvalue co-founder and CEO Rahul Banerjee says: “Citi and MassMutual are behemoths in the bond market. Their support of our vision to have a transparent bond market will accelerate our momentum."
Chris Cox, global head of data and digitisation and strategic projects, and Emea head of Securities Services at Citi, adds: “Alongside Northern Trust, Citi will join the BondbloX Bond Exchange as an asset servicing provider and as a strategic partner to the BondEvalue ecosystem. We are excited about the prospect of digitalisation of traditional assets and to be part of that journey with BondEvalue.”