CDS products are hot again!
Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist together with Soros Fund Management and Shumway Capital, led a new investment round in TruMid Financial, a corporate bond and CDS trading startup.
TruMid Financial already closed the majority of the investment round, which was expected to be around $27 million. The company anticipated completing the investment round by the end of this year.
According to the corporate bond and CDS trading startup, the new capital will boost the ability of its e-trading platform to improve liquidity for all market participants.
A related report from Bloomberg indicated that Jeff Bahl, the former head of U.S. high-yield credit trading at Goldman Sachs Group and other individual investors also invested in TruMid Financial, which is now valued more than $100 million.
Mr. Bahl is the current Portfolio Manager at Bahl and Gaynor. According to him, “The days of a very skilled market maker that has the ability to set his or her own level of risk are over. The business of trading bonds at banks is now glorified order taking.”
Earlier this year, Soros Fund Management and Shumway Capital led TruMid Financial’s first round of external financing. George Soros is the founder and Chairman of Soros Fund Management. Chris Shumway is the founder and Managing Partner of Shumway Capital.
TruMid Financial: an early leader in electronic trading
Trumid Financial is establishing itself as an early leader in electronic trading since its launching in April. According to the company, many of the top institutional investors are now trading on its platform.
Currently, TruMid Financial has 191 institutional clients live on the platform and almost 400 more in the onboarding process.
Ronnie Mateo, the founder and CEO of TruMid Financial said, “This influx of capital supercharges our effort to enhance the TruMid user experience and our obsessive pursuit to improve corporate bond liquidity.”
TruMid Financial platform’s daily order volume
TruMid Financial’s all-to-all system uses trading sessions called, “swarms” allow anonymous and efficient transaction between institutional investors to drive mid-market pricing and best execution in round-lot transactions.
According to the company, more than $50 billion in order volume and $2.5 billion in executed trades occurred since the launching of its platform six months ago. TruMid Financial’s total daily order volume is approximately $750 across investment grade and junk-rated bonds. The average trade sice is $2.5 million.
