Xignite, a provider of market data cloud solutions for financial institutions and financial technology companies, has raised USD20.5 million in a Series C funding round led by Tokyo-based QUICK Corporation, part of the Nikkei Group and Japan’s largest financial information provider.
StarVest Partners, Altos Ventures, and Startup Capital Ventures, Xignite’s current investors, also participated. This new round brings Xignite’s total funding to USD37 million.
In connection with the capital raise, Xignite and QUICK will be partnering to deliver Xignite’s cloud-based data solutions in the Asian market as well as QUICK’s proprietary financial data and information through Xignite’s market leading APIs. Xignite brings an elastic cloud infrastructure solution that is easy to use, multi-tenant, built on open standards and scalable with zero footprint to clients. QUICK is the first and leading financial information provider in Japan with a strong reputation and brand in Asia and a member of the Nikkei group.
Xignite will use the funds to further scale its sales and marketing efforts and expand its product capabilities in order to fuel the company’s continued global growth. Together with QUICK, Xignite will continue to accelerate the growth and disruption created by financial technology innovations in the Asian market and elsewhere around the world.
Xignite powers many of the world’s most innovative fintech leaders, including Betterment, Currency Cloud, SoFi, Jimubox and 8 Securities. Xignite’s 1000+ customers are revolutionising the financial services industry, disrupting key markets such as trading, wealth management, payments, and financial research and analysis. Over the past year, Xignite has experienced explosive growth, growing bookings by over 50 per cent and serving more than 455 billion data requests from its APIs, with demand doubling every 6 months.
“The fintech revolution has only just begun and will sweep all aspects of the financial services industry in the coming years,” says Stephane Dubois, CEO and founder of Xignite. “Financial institutions can no longer afford to operate rigid and proprietary data infrastructures. Fintech innovators continue to put pressure on more traditional financial services companies. These legacy institutions must innovate and simultaneously cut costs if they want to survive and thrive in this new paradigm. This includes the complex, burdensome and costly consumption of financial data. We are excited to have QUICK’s backing and shared vision of an advanced, global market data cloud infrastructure.”
“Asia is the world’s largest fintech frontier and the region is experiencing hyper-growth,” says Noboru Yoshioka, QUICK’s President and CEO. “We are very pleased to announce that QUICK has partnered with Xignite, one of the most innovative fintech companies in the financial services industry. By combining our experience and leading position in Asia with Xignite’s technology and innovation, we have a unique opportunity to capture the growth in this market.”
Atsuyuki Nakajima, QUICK Managing Director, will be joining Xignite’s Board of Directors. Nakajima currently leads QUICK’s Global and Strategic Business Development activities. As a 35+ year QUICK veteran, he brings invaluable knowledge and experience of the Asian market and financial market data to the Xignite board.
Marlin & Associates acted as exclusive strategic and financial advisor to Xignite in connection with the transaction. Jonathan Kaufman, Senior Managing Director at Marlin, said, “We are extremely pleased to have played a role in this exciting transaction, a significant event in the market data industry. Stephane Dubois has built an impressive and innovative company that has helped fuel the growth and innovation in the financial technology industry. We wish Xignite and QUICK the best of luck in their partnership.”
