FIA today announced the 10 startups that have been chosen to exhibit in the 2022 Innovators Pavilion, FIA's annual showcase for fintech startups relevant to derivatives trading and clearing. The Pavilion takes place during FIA’s Futures and Options Expo, which brings together traders, brokers and other market professionals from a wide range of firms in the derivatives industry. The conference will be held in Chicago, Nov. 14-15, 2022.
"We are excited to welcome these 10 startups to FIA Expo and help them connect with potential partners and customers in our industry," said Walt Lukken, FIA president and chief executive officer. "Innovation is the hallmark of the derivatives industry, and this program is a key part of our efforts to support new products, new technologies and new business models."
The 10 startups were selected by an independent committee of industry experts drawn from FIA member firms as well as venture capital firms focused on capital markets. The startups were chosen based on the innovations in their products and services and their relevance to the global futures, options and swaps markets.
This year's class of Innovators are:
- BeZero Carbon – ratings agency for voluntary carbon market
- Clouty Inc – music derivatives
- Emmi – climate risk analysis for investors
- Exponential Exchange – vehicle value derivatives
- Floating Point Group – prime brokerage platform for crypto
- Hxro – infrastructure for onchain derivatives
- Kemet Trading – infrastructure for trading crypto derivatives
- OrBit Markets – liquidity provider for crypto options and structured products
- Tallarium – market data for OTC commodity traders
- ZeroBeta – cloud-based risk and collateral management platform
"This year's group includes startups focused on many different potential applications, including climate risk, cryptocurrencies, commodity hedging, collateral management and the introduction of entirely new asset classes to the derivatives markets," said Will Acworth, FIA’s senior vice president of data, publications and research. "I want to thank the members of the selection committee for their work in sifting through the applications and choosing such a diverse group of startups for our program."
This year's selection committee included experts from Akuna Capital, Barclays, Brevan Howard, Chicago Trading Company, Citadel Securities, DRW Venture Capital, Goldman Sachs, Illuminate Financial, IMC, Optiver, Peak6, SenaHill Partners, Société Générale, and UBS.
As the leading trade association for the listed and cleared derivatives markets, FIA has worked for decades to promote advances in the trading and clearing of derivatives. The annual Innovators Pavilion has become a core element of FIA's commitment to accelerate the adoption of fintech solutions in these markets.
Each year FIA invites a select group of fintech startups to showcase their solutions for the derivatives industry at the FIA Expo, the industry's largest trade show. Since the first Innovators Pavilion in 2015, more than 120 startups from around the world have participated in the event.
Each company in this year's Innovators Pavilion will receive a free booth on the trade show floor and the opportunity to demonstrate their innovations to show attendees. Each company also will get a chance to pitch their solutions directly to Expo attendees, including senior executives from exchanges, clearinghouses, banks, brokers and trading firms.
At the conclusion of Expo, FIA will announce the winner of the "Innovator of the Year" award. The winner will be determined by a group of judges drawn from representative segments of the derivatives industry. FIA also will announce the winner of the "People's Choice" award, which will be determined by votes cast by Expo attendees.
Last year the winners were Stable as the FIA Innovator of the Year, X-Margin, now rebranded as Credora, as runner-up, and Databento as the People's Choice award winner.
