Capital markets fintech Clear Street has achieved unicorn status after raising a $165 million Series B funding round led by private equity firm Prysm Capital.
It’s the fintech’s first venture capital raise since its inception four years ago, giving it a valuation of $1.7 billion.
Clear Street says the cash injection will help the company broaden its capabilities to serve fintechs, market makers and professional traders after starting out with a best-in-class brokerage platform for institutional investors. The company says its mission is to build better infrastructure and increase market access for everyone.
Committed to “better technology” for everyone
Other investors included NextGen Venture Partners, Walleye Capital, Belvedere and McLaren Strategic Ventures, as well as various angel investors.
Chris Pento, Clear Street Co-Founder and CEO, says: “We founded Clear Street to replace the outdated technical infrastructure used in the capital markets. It shouldn’t take six months to open an account, or a year to start trading a new asset class. Customers demand better technology and better service. Clear Street is committed to addressing this issue head-on. Our cloud-native platform provides the services and data investors need to compete in today’s markets.”
Co-founder and CTO Sachin Kumar continues, “We started with Prime Brokerage, a space where we had experienced first-hand the frustrations caused by operating with outdated technology. In building Prime Services, we have found that 80-90% of the infrastructure used to serve Prime brokerage clients is the same infrastructure used by other market participants such as fintech app developers or market makers . We have focused heavily on creating platforms that are API-first, such as B. Clearing, settlement and custody so that we can expand to other parts of the market.”
A time of growth for Clear Street
The completion of the Series B round caps an impressive 18 months for the New York-based company. Since the beginning of 2021, Clear Street has seen funding balances increase by 220% and equity transaction volume growth of more than 500%. Today, it processes more than $3 billion in trading volume per day.
It has also set out to expand its leadership team across the board and now has nearly 100 engineers working in product development and customer needs. Clear Street has promised to further expand its teams and resources as a result of this recent $165 million investment.
Matt Roberts, Co-Founder and Partner at Prysm Capital, says, “Capital markets lag behind in innovation and often rely on outdated technologies that make markets difficult and expensive to access. Under the leadership of Chris and Sachin, Clear Street has built a lead-edge platform that competes with incumbent market players. We are proud to work with the team to expand their offering and improve access to public markets.”
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