Capitolis adds $56M from Barclays, JPMorgan, BNP, without naming its valuation
Latest fundraising skips price tag but reinforces company’s momentum in capital markets.
Israeli fintech company Capitolis has raised $56 million from a number of major banks, including Barclays, J.P. Morgan, and BNP Paribas. This marks the company’s second consecutive funding round using a SAFE-like format, in which a valuation for the company has not yet been determined and is expected to be set in a future round. SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) is essentially a loan that converts into shares during a subsequent funding round, typically led by other investors.
Just last November, Capitolis, founded in 2017, announced a similar round, raising $20 million led by Citibank, with participation from Morgan Stanley, UBS, and State Street. Capitolis’ last “traditional” equity fundraising round, completed in 2022, was done at a valuation of $1.6 billion. The company now asserts that the recent SAFE rounds reflect a valuation higher than that of 2022, despite no formal valuation being disclosed.
Capitolis’ total funding to date now stands at $350 million, and its backers include some of the world’s largest venture capital firms, such as Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and Spark Capital.
The company works closely with the global banking sector, and many banks are also its clients. Capitolis’ platform enables them to offset positions across various assets, thereby reducing the amount of regulatory capital required for open positions. This optimization of investment portfolios allows financial institutions to unlock capital and scale up trading activity.
Capitolis was founded by Gil Mandelzis, Tom Glocer, and Igor Teleshevsky. Mandelzis serves as CEO, and is one of the former founders of the fintech company Traiana which was acquired by ICAP for $250 million in 2007. Glocer served in the past as CEO of Thomson Reuters. Teleshevsky was previously Executive Vice President of Traiana and later CIO at ICAP.
Capitolis currently employs 160 people and, according to company insiders, is growing at an annual rate of about 100%.
“We are thrilled for the continued support from strategic global banks, and we are excited to welcome Barclays and BNP on board and have J.P. Morgan reaffirm their commitment to Capitolis. It is also exciting to see a strong vote of confidence from our VC investors who participated in our Series D round and are now doubling down,” said Gil Mandelzis, CEO and Founder, Capitolis. “These investments will help us further accelerate our growth and expansion in the capital markets as we continue our strong business momentum.”
