Following the closing of a $10 million investment round, OpenDoor Trading, LLC (“OpenDoor”) has become the first U.S. bond trading platform both majority-owned and majority-controlled by women. The funds will be used to support technology and business development of an innovative ‘all-to-all’ trading platform for off-the-run Treasuries and TIPS. Launch is scheduled for the fall.
OpenDoor, which was co-founded by industry veterans Susan Estes and Brian Meehan less than three years ago, is quickly developing traction with central banks, asset managers and other institutional investors, as well as the dealers that service them.
The latest investments in the platform include a sizeable stake from a female investor, as well as bond trading legend John Brynjolfsson. Hartfield, Titus & Donnelly – the municipal broker-dealer led by former Co-Head of the Americas for ICAP, Ron Purpora, also has an ownership stake in OpenDoor.
Susan Estes, CEO OpenDoor
OpenDoor will provide a compelling source of liquidity to off-the-run U.S. Treasury and TIPS trading,” said Estes, CEO of OpenDoor. “It has only been possible to get to this stage – and address the most significant pain points within a new market structure – because of consistent input from participants. This feedback is reflected in the features of our trading platform which we believe will result in a more credible, robust and accessible marketplace.”
Estes and the other female investor now control more than 65% of the voting interest in OpenDoor after the raise, which was completed at a pre-money valuation of $40 million. This follows an initial seed funding round in late-2015.
Estes has more than three decades of executive management experience in global financial services, running major trading operations for Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank and Countrywide. At Countrywide she built the first new domestic primary dealer approved by the FRBNY in over 20 years. While at Countrywide she also successfully launched several other non-mortgage rates trading businesses and established futures and derivative products subsidiaries.