Virtu Financial, Inc. (NASDAQ:VIRT) today announced a strategic engagement with IPO investing network ClearingBid, Inc.
Under the terms of the agreement, ClearingBid’s proprietary IPO network will leverage Virtu ITG Net’s scaled connectivity platform. All brokers and financial institutions that rely on Virtu’s connectivity to complete millions of transactions every day will now be able to place orders for IPO shares using the same order entry systems as secondary market limit orders.
Virtu’s intelligent, integrated network, ITG Net, enables clients to go well beyond the basics of connectivity. In addition to providing reliable, 24/6 managed access to trade with over 700 brokers and market centers globally, ITG Net provides invaluable tools and transparency to enhance clients’ trading process before, during, and after the trade.
Steve Cavoli, EVP and Head of Global Execution Services at Virtu, commented:
“The combination of Virtu’s vast, FIX network and trading infrastructure with ClearingBid’s novel IPO offering, will expand access to the primary market to all investors and their brokers, expanding access to one of the most important parts of our capital markets.”
“Virtu is one of the industry’s largest trading providers with premier processing and fulfillment capabilities,” noted Matt Venturi, ClearingBid CEO and Founder. “By providing investors with seamless order entry and accessibility, and having Virtu ITG Net serve as our preferred network service provider, ClearingBid moves one step closer in our mission to enhance an often inefficient and opaque IPO process. Our partnership with Virtu further supports ClearingBid’s ability to leverage today’s securities industry infrastructure and order entry protocols to meet the growing demand for access to IPO investing. The shared vision, to create a new IPO investing standard while driving further industry transparency, will help to expand investment opportunities for retail and institutional investors alike.”
The combined capabilities of Virtu’s global FIX connectivity solutions and ClearingBid’s IPO network aims to make primary share IPO investing open to all brokers on the network and importantly their end investors. ClearingBid’s price discovery platform, which allows issuing companies to optimize the IPO price while achieving the broadest potential investor participation, will be further enhanced by Virtu ITG Net’s connectivity with hundreds of broker-dealers who can now seamlessly onboard with ClearingBid’s primary market solution.
