Leading interdealer broker ICAP has departed somewhat from its comfort zone and is playing VC, by investing in financial software startup OpenGamma. ICAP is leading a $15 million financing round for OpenGamma, which previously was backed by venture capital firms Accel Partners and FirstMark Capital.
OpenGamma’s platform, which just went live in April, is an open-source analytics and risk management platform for the financial services industry. The investment is part of ICAP’s strategy to provide more robust post-trade analytics and management. Mark Beeston, CEO of Post Trade Risk and Information at ICAP, will be joining OpenGamma’s Board of Directors
ICAP has before invested in and acquired financial software companies, most notably Traiana. Traiana provides financial institutions with solutions to automate post-trade processing of financial transactions, and has had particular success selling its product among the e-trading community, especially to FX brokers and FX prime brokers. Traiana was acquired by ICAP in 2007 for $247 million.
For more on the global FX market see the LeapRate-Dow Jones Forex Industry Report.