MerQube has announced the successful closure of a funding round led by Laurion Capital Management. This round follows the USD5 million Series A led by J.P. Morgan in October 2021. MerQube had previously raised USD2 million in its seed round in August 2019 and October 2020.
Joining Laurion Capital Management in this round are Citi, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and UBS. These leading global investment banks are all working with MerQube to leverage its innovative technology and the advantages offered by its cloud-native platform.
The firm writes that the index-linked investments market, today valued at USD17 trillion, continues to evolve rapidly and is estimated to surpass active investing in just five years, growing by USD 500 billion every year. The demand for sophisticated and customised rules-based strategies is growing at a very fast pace, blurring the line between traditional passive and active strategies and raising the need for state-of-the-art technology. MerQube is answering this unmet need with its unparalleled technology and solutions.
MerQube’s recent accomplishments have included assuming calculation and administration services for the UBS CMCI index family, a family of 1,100+ of UBS’s most innovative commodity indices. MerQube also launched the MerQube MicroSectors U.S. Travel Index, tracked by The MicroSectors Travel lineup of exchange traded notes. In 2021, MerQube launched the US Tech + Vol Advantage Index, linked to one of the most successful structured notes during the year. MerQube is also the benchmark provider for most of the defined outcome ETFs issued in the USA.
MerQube will utilise the funds raised to further invest in the development of its market-leading platform, as it scales its talent and continues to expand into key markets.
Vinit Srivastava, CEO at MerQube, says: “MerQube was created to deliver cloud-native solutions for sophisticated and customised rules-based investing. Our platform is powering some of the most innovative products today and we are proud to count leading investment banks and asset managers as our clients. We are delighted to have Laurion Capital Management, Citi, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley and UBS as investors, and are proud to collaborate with them as clients. The demand for customized, scalable, and cost-efficient solutions is driving our growth, and the r-evolution of indexing. The support we are receiving during these times of market uncertainty is testament to the value we bring to our clients with our unique technology.”
Emmanuel Naim, Head of Derivatives at Laurion Capital Management, says: “We believe that the indexing business is set to further expand as the exceptional growth of passive investing continues. MerQube, with its technology-driven approach and the long-standing experience of its team, is set to become a key actor in this space. MerQube is able to meet investors’ ever-increasing need for financial innovation by delivering a wide range of bespoke index solutions across asset classes. Laurion Capital Management is delighted to lead this investment round as MerQube’s growth accelerates.”
Rui Fernandes, Head of Global Equities Structuring and Co-Head of Global Investor Structuring at J.P. Morgan, says: “This further round of investment and collaboration with MerQube affirms J.P. Morgan’s commitment to technology as a way to provide solutions that meet our clients’ needs for sophisticated index-based strategies.”
Oliver Taylor, Head of Americas Equities Trading at Citi, says: “Citi’s investment in MerQube is testament to our commitment to bringing best in class solutions to our clients. We believe we can achieve that with the powerful combination of MerQube’s technology and Citi’s IP and broad client reach.”
Earlier this year, MerQube featured in the ETF Express ETF Innovators’ column.
