Bond180, the company making bond issuance easy for borrowers and investors alike, today announced its development funding by Cambridge Enterprise, the commercialisation arm of the University of Cambridge.
Bond180 is the first true digital bond-issuance platform that directly connects corporate borrowers with institutional investors. The company’s services are two-fold. First, it provides a matching service that matches investors’ demand for high-quality bonds with investment-grade companies looking to borrow.
Second, Bond180 will use a bond issuance platform that implements innovative distributed ledger technology to seamlessly facilitate fixed-income securities issuance. Bond180 has partnered with R3, the leading global enterprise-grade distributed ledger technology provider, to deliver this service on its Corda platform, upon which hundreds of businesses build their applications for various enterprise uses.
“Our mission is to optimise capital markets for the benefit of savers and businesses,” said Phil Holbrook, Founder of Bond180. “We are doing this by making the matching and issuance process more efficient, cheaper, and quicker.”
“FinTech is a burgeoning industry in the UK and we hope to see it flourish in the Cambridge tech ecosystem as well, particularly with the presence of the world-class Cambridge Judge Business School and Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance,” said James Thomas, Senior Investment Associate at Cambridge Enterprise. “We were impressed by the ambition of Bond180’s vision and are eager to back a diverse and multi-faceted team.”
David E Rutter, CEO at R3, said:
“We are delighted to be partnering with Bond180 to support the creation of a more efficient, transparent bond market. R3’s own vision to bring technology into everyday enterprise use aligns entirely with Bond180’s digital bond-issuance platform and we are proud to be the partner to deliver this service. Corda is built and developed with business needs in mind, with the cutting edge technology to support industry-transforming initiatives and this development from Bond180 is no exception. We look forward to seeing Bond180 continue to grow and achieve further success in financial services technology”
About Bond 180
Bond180 is a new digital bond issuance platform committed to building a more robust, transparent, and fair bond market. Our two-tiered service will provide a matching engine between institutional investors and corporate borrowers, and a digital bond issuance platform that streamlines the origination process and lowers costs for investors and borrowers alike.
We aim to establish a new standard of excellence in the fixed income market by helping investors source high-quality assets while helping borrowers time- and cost-effectively raise funds in the debt capital markets. For more information, please visit http://www.bond180.com.
Cambridge Enterprise:
A wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Cambridge, Cambridge Enterprise Limited is responsible for the commercialisation of University intellectual property. It provides access to early stage capital through the Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds, University of Cambridge Enterprise Funds and Cambridge Enterprise Venture Partners, and offers business planning, mentoring and related programmes. Activities include management and licensing of intellectual property and patents, proof of concept funding and support for University staff and research groups wishing to provide expert advice or facilities to public and private sector organisations. For more information, please visit: www.enterprise.cam.ac.uk
