Growth-equity investment firm Edison Partners has completed the sale of Clearpool Group, a New York-based electronic trading provider and independent agency broker-dealer, to BMO Financial Group. The deal is Edison’s third institutional fintech exit to a strategic buyer this year, which also includes the sale of Scivantage to Refinitiv and Solovis to Nasdaq, and is the second portfolio company exit between Edison and Clearpool CEO Joe Wald.
The acquisition of Clearpool is set to deliver new capabilities to BMO’s electronic trading platform, as the nature of equity trading continues to move online. Clearpool will remain a separate brand under BMO and a separate broker-dealer, with information barriers to secure clients’ confidential information.
“Strategic buyers are building their fintech muscle knowing they need to respond both to the challenges that smaller, nimble fintechs are bringing to the market and what is likely to be a prolonged period of increased market volatility,” says Chris Sugden, managing partner at Edison Partners who led the firm’s investments in Clearpool and also served on the company’s board.
“Joe Wald has been one of our most successful, repeat CEOs. With Clearpool, he and his team built a sound, high growth, profitable business with strong unit economics and ROI. They helped to modernise electronic trading to give investors and traders greater transparency and control.”
Clearpool is the third Edison-backed fintech business led by Wald, who was also CEO and co-founder of EdgeTrade, and subsequently served as executive vice president at GAIN Capital.
“This is my third time partnering with Chris Sudgen and the Edison team. Each time they have provided tremendous resources and expertise to help us scale our business to a successful exit,” says Wald.
“Chris is a hands-on board member and contributor. His operating experience, industry knowledge, and network have been invaluable to us in our journey. We are excited to have delivered a great outcome for all Clearpool shareholders and look forward to our next chapter with BMO.”
