Archax completes first raise for Montis Digital, using Primary Issuance Platform, alongside DLA Piper in FCA Sandbox
UK regulated venue tests its primary rails prior to full digital platform launch later this year.
Archax, the only UK regulated and registered digital securities exchange, broker and custodian, today announced that it has completed the first fundraise on its Primary Issuance Platform working with DLA Piper. The oversubscribed round of $1.5m was conducted for its recently announced Montis Digital subsidiary, which is building blockchain-based market infrastructure for the post-trade ecosystem. The raise was completed in the context of a wider digitalisation and regulatory compliance project within the FCA’s Innovation Sandbox as part of their Cohort 6. This forms a key part of Archax’s drive to build regulated post-trade services that will fully support digital asset processing.
Participants in the raise were onboarded through the Archax website portal, with their holdings then maintained and recorded in the Archax regulated custody service, to be ready for and to prove the journey to future digital token issuance. The DLA Piper regulatory compliance platform was also used to automate and assess the regulatory requirements applicable to the raise and create the required legal documents for participating in a digital issuance.
Martin Bartlam, Partner at DLA Piper, comments: “We were keen to prove the concept of an automated, digital regulatory compliant raise that can be done quickly and efficiently as part of our project in the FCA Sandbox. This enables issuers to exchange equity and/or debt into digital format that can be traded on the Archax exchange with a minimum of management time and effort as well as to raise new funding in digital or traditional form.”
Graham Rodford, CEO of Archax, adds: “In the run-up to our full digital exchange launch, we are proving concepts and testing parts of our platform in advance. Being able to help firms raise capital in as efficient and automated way as possible is a key part of our planned service. Completing this raise alongside leading law firm DLA Piper and working within the FCA Sandbox highlights our capabilities prior to go-live.
Martin Watkins, CEO of Montis Digital, adds: “As a business building the next generation of financial markets infrastructure for the post-trade ecosystem, it was a natural decision to leverage the innovative digital process that DLA Piper and Archax were pioneering in the FCA Sandbox. It is exciting to now have the funds needed in place to move Montis forward at pace, to the next stage of growth.”
Also party to the raise was US broker/dealer GB Capital Markets Inc. acting as placement agent for US investor participants. GB Capital Markets Inc. is a private placement broker-dealer that assists in debt, equity, and digital asset financing arrangements on behalf of its clients.
About DLA Piper
DLA Piper is one of the largest global law firms in the world, with lawyers located in more than 90 offices across 40 countries throughout the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.
The firm’s practice groups include, corporate, employment, finance, projects and restructuring, intellectual property and technology, litigation and regulatory, real estate and tax. DLA Piper’s clients range from multinationals, Global 100 and Fortune 500 enterprises, governments, sub-sovereign entities and public sector bodies to emerging companies developing industry-leading technologies. They include more than half of the Fortune 250 and nearly half of the FTSE 350 or their subsidiaries.
About Archax
Archax is a global, regulated, digital asset exchange, brokerage and custodian based in London. Founded by experts from the financial markets world and backed by an accomplished advisory board, Archax offers a credible bridge between the blockchain-centric crypto community and the traditional investment space.
Archax is the first ever firm to receive FCA regulation as a digital securities exchange, custodian and brokerage. It was also the first firm to be listed on the FCA’s Cryptoasset Register as a VASP (Virtual Asset Service Provider).
Archax has been designed specifically for institutional investors to trade in all types of digital assets, from cryptocurrencies to digital securities. It is built using existing, proven, resilient, scalable, high-performance exchange infrastructure, hosted in top-tier datacentre space, and integrated into existing institutional trading workflow.
About Montis Digital
Montis Digital is building the next generation of digitally-native infrastructure for global capital markets, that leverages blockchain technology to revolutionise the post-trade space and allow tokenised assets, such as digital securities or security tokens, to realise their full potential.
Montis is part of the Archax group, but is crucially independent of all the other venues, products and services that Archax offers. The Montis DLT post-trade market infrastructure is designed to be blockchain agnostic and will be available to exchanges and market participants globally.
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