Illuminate Financial, a fintech venture fund focused on the capital markets industry, has made its first investment since its launch last year, taking a stake in collateral management outfit CloudMargin.
Originally backed by a group of senior financial market executives, CloudMargin's collateral and margin management technology was developed to cater specifically to buy-side and non-bank institutions such as corporates, hedge funds, insurers, pension funds, asset managers and more. The Web-based product offers low-cost "pay as you go" menu-based pricing as an alternative to expensive bespoke deployments from package providers.
The move marks Illuminate’s first investment in a fintech firm since it was launched last year by industry veteran Mark Beeston, who previously managed Icap’s post-trade risk and information division.
Says Beeston: “CloudMargin fits perfectly into our investment thesis of identifying and accelerating the growth of young companies that will lead the next stage of technology innovation within capital markets. It is unique in that it offers a low cost solution for a range of industry participants as well as improving efficiency for the major sell side players who interact with those same counterparties.”
CloudMargin recently announced connectivity to AcadiaSoft, the collateral messaging platform, where Mark Beeston was a former member of the Board.
Richard Berliand, board advisor to CloudMargin comments: “We chose Illuminate because of their unique understanding of the markets and ongoing changes around collateral processing. Crucially, the team at Illuminate provides not only capital, but has a proven track record of creating, funding and scaling fintech market infrastructure that will be highly beneficial to CloudMargin’s growth journey.”