As the coronavirus pandemic sparks an upward trend in digital bond trading, New York fintech Trumid has posted a record trading volume this year.
Trumid operates a bond-trading platform that provides users with tools to give and receive liquidity, as well as negotiate and execute trades electronically. The technology enables efficiencies to credit changing through data, technology and innovative products.
Employing just shy of 100 people, the fintech counts hedge funds, asset managers, and banks within its 500 clients. In 2020, Trumid shared that its market increased by 5 times, as the volume of trades on its platform grew by almost 500%.
Backing Trumid’s current growth is TPG, who participated in a $200 million Series E funding round for the fintech led by growth equity firm Dragoneer. Since its inception in 2014, Trumid has raised around $400 million. This investment round more than doubled their valuation, helping them reach over $1 billion since last May. “This is a big wind at our back to continue to pursue the ambitious vision that we have,” shares Mike Sobel, Trumid’s president. He also adds that “Trumid plans to use the $200 million funding to widen its trading protocols, create new products and expand our community.”
A widespread transition to a work-from-home workforce was cited as the catalyst for the increased adoption of the digital bond trading platform, as traders found themselves having no choice but to reevaluate how they conduct their business. In these unprecedented times, automation and technology platforms provide the much-needed solutions to a changing work environment. Confirming this, TPG’s Flynn noted “years of technology adoption has taken place in the bond market over the last few months. Trumid provides a better way for both buy-side and sell-side market participants to trade…it saves traders time, while allowing banks to be more efficient.”
For many traders, Trumid's intuitively designed program highlights the way they should have been trading the whole time. This sentiment comes as a relief to TPG, who could feasibly raise the concern that Trumid’s growth is directly tied to a temporary work-from-home arrangement. This diligence affirms Trumid’s claim that it is a revolutionary electronic trading marketplace for corporate bonds.
In February, Trumid appeared in Forbes’ Fintech 50 list. The acknowledgement comes as a result of its rapid acceleration in the industry, and as an appreciative nod to its innovative ‘dark pools’ that allow market participants to trade anonymously, offering protection to the marketplace and tradable securities ahead of the transaction. With a mission “to create enough liquidity and access to alter credit markets forever,” Trumid is likely headed for an exciting future with this latest round of funding.
