In the last week of February, Euromoney sits down with a veteran equity capital markets banker to discuss innovation in that business.
It is a short chat.
“I have been doing this since the mid 1990s and we still execute deals in much the same way today as we did 20 years ago,” he tells Euromoney. “In fact, it’s pretty much identical. This remains an analogue business in an increasingly digital world.”
Suddenly, he looks anxious. “The whole financial ecosystem around us has evolved. Change has to come to primary capital markets. But though we have our own initiatives under way, I’m just not sure what form that change will take.”
The very next day, Nivaura – a fintech company aiming to automate the entire middle- and back-office processes for issuing new debt and equity deals – offers a clue.
It has closed a $20 million seed funding round, an unusually large amount for such early stage capital, with backing from the London Stock Exchange Group, law firms Allen & Overy and Linklaters, leading fintech venture capital fund Santander InnoVentures and Transamerica Ventures, a subsidiary of Aegon.
