Members Exchange (MemX), a US-based company building a new equity market, closed a $65m funding round yesterday backed by financial services firm Wells Fargo, trading firm Flow Traders and brokerage firm Williams Trading.
Private equity group BlackRock and hedge fund Manikay Partners also contributed to the round. Quantitative trading firm Jane Street Capital and investment banks JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs had supplied an initial tranche in February 2020.
MemX is building an equity exchanges market that it hopes will rival established stock exchanges such as Nasdaq and New York Stock Exchange by simplifying trading, cutting costs and boosting transparency.
The company gained regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier this month and plans to launch its exchange in the third quarter of 2020.
MemX did not specify what it intended to do with the funding specifically. BlackRock will appoint a representative to the board of directors.
MemX has now raised more than $135m in total funding, it said. It was launched in January 2019 by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, E*Trade, Fidelity Investments, Morgan Stanley, TD Ameritrade, UBS, and Virtu Financial.
