Wednesday 27 February 2019 11:59 am | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 1:44 am

London Stock Exchange Group leads $20m Nivaura funding round

Fintech firm Nivaura has closed a $20m (£15m) seed capital round led by London Stock Exchange Group.

The London-based company, which provides blockchain technology for digital investment banking platforms, will use the funding to rapidly expand its leadership, business development and technical teams.

The company also plans to use the financing to enter new markets and cover new asset classes.

Nivaura chief executive Avtar Sehra said: “Our focus for 2019 is on conducting a series of high profile, large-scale projects with high calibre partners to demonstrate our platform as a valuable solution across the full spectrum of capital markets primary issuance activities.

“Working with such partners with their wealth of experience will underpin our next phase of growth.”

Other investors included Allen & Overy, Linklaters, Santander Innoventures and Transamerica Ventures.

London Stock Exchange chief executive Nikhil Rathi has been appointed as a Nivaura board member.

Allen & Overy senior debt capital markets lawyer Richard Cohen has joined the firm as general counsel and head of strategy, while former HSBC banking and markets division vice chairman Spencer Lake has joined as a board member.

Sehra added: “We’re seeing growing appetite from major financial institutions for practical innovation that goes beyond buzzwords and conceptual Proof of Concepts in ‘digital investment banking’. Boards are saying: go forth and innovate.

"But doing so in the highly regulated and complex world of capital markets is immensely difficult. With our now proven approach and compliance credentials, we are able to finally help our industry take practical steps to innovate and improve their economics.”