Distributed Ledger Developer Axoni Raises $18 Million in Capital
Axoni, a developer of distributed ledger technology for the financial services industry, raised $18 million in capital in December in its first big round of funding from banks and venture capital investors.
The $18 million capital raise was led by Euclid Opportunities, the fintech investment arm of NEX, and Wells Fargo. Other participating investors included two other banks— Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan—as well as Andreessen Horowitz, FinTech Collective, F-Prime Capital Partners, Digital Currency Group, and Thomson Reuters.
Axoni is among a host of startups seeking to provide blockchain services to the financial services industry. Founded in March 2013 by the founders of TradeBlock, a bitcoin services company, Axoni has focused on post-trade data management for credit default swaps, equity swaps and foreign exchange derivatives. The company officially launched in March 2016 and it has partnered with more than a dozen banks and financial infrastructure providers.
“Axoni has developed proprietary smart contract technology and has successfully validated this technology in a variety of capital markets use cases," said C. Thomas Richardson, head of market structure and electronic trading services at Wells Fargo Securities. “We have been impressed by the high-caliber team, their deep domain knowledge, and disciplined approach to product development."
