Today London-based Elwood Technologies announced it raised a $70 million Series A funding round co-led by Dawn Capital and Goldman Sachs. The startup was founded by Alan Howard, the former CEO of Brevan Howard, and provides a platform for institutional digital asset access, including order management, execution, and portfolio management.
Other investors in the round included Barclays, CommerzVentures, Galaxy Digital Ventures, BlockFi Ventures, Chimera Ventures, Digital Currency Group and Flow Traders.
“As institutional demand for cryptocurrency rises, we have been actively broadening our market presence and capabilities to cater for client demand. Our investment in Elwood demonstrates our continued commitment to digital assets and we look forward to partnering to expand our capabilities,” said Mathew McDermott, Global Head of Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs.
In February, the startup announced an integration of its platform with Bloomberg AIM, the buy-side order management system.
It previously operated a blockchain equity ETF in association with Invesco but sold the $1bn ETF operations to Coinshares in 2021 to focus on its technology platform. The transaction was valued at $17 million and settled through an equity swap, increasing Alan Howard’s significant shareholding in Coinshares.
As with other competitor offerings, the key to Elwood’s platform is to offer a single API for institutions to access numerous exchanges and venues.
Last week U.S. based competitor Talos raised a $105 million Series B round that included General Atlantic, BNY Mellon, Citi and Wells Fargo.
