The Small Exchange, a new futures exchange, has raised another $10 million ahead of its official launch later this year.
The Small Exchange announced Thursday that it raised $10 million from Citadel Securities and Jump Capital, who both invested $5 million each. The round comes after the Small Exchange raised $10 million back in January from Tastytrade co-founder Tom Sosnoff and Peak6 co-founders Matt Hulsizer and Jenny Just.
The company is led by CEO Donnie Roberts, an early employee at thinkorswim and the former president and COO of TD Ameritrade's Futures & Forex division.
The Small Exchange says it's building a more user-friendly futures exchange for customers of all sizes, though its focus will be toward smaller retail traders. It offers a subscription model that it says allows for lower exchange and market data fees.
“The Small Exchange is bringing a unique approach to making futures products more accessible to individual investors,” Peter Johnson, principal at Jump Capital, said in a statement. “We are excited to invest behind a deeply experienced founding team and are looking forward to leveraging Jump’s capital markets experience to help build an industry leading futures exchange.”
The round of capital means further industry validation for the Small Exchange, which has applied to be a registered designated contract market with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Citadel Securities, founded by Illinois billionaire Ken Griffin, is one of the largest market makers in the U.S. Jump Capital is the VC arm of Chicago-based trading firm Jump Trading.
The Small Exchange expects to go live later this year.
