Capital markets fintech Clear Street lands $165m in Series B funding

New York-based fintech Clear Street has secured $165 million in a Series B funding round led by Prysm Capital.

Clear Street raises $165m Series B

Other contributors to the fundraise include NextGen Venture Partners, Walleye Capital, Belvedere, NEAR Foundation, McLaren Strategic Ventures and Validus Growth Investors, as well as a number of angel investors.

The Series B is the company’s first venture capital raise since it was founded in 2018 and takes its valuation up to $1.7 billion.

Clear Street offers a cloud-based prime brokerage platform which enables institutional investors to trade US equities and stock options.

The firm aims to use the new capital to further build out its offering and “expand its capabilities to serve fintechs, market makers and professional traders”.

The firm also plans to grow its team and form new partnerships “to meet its goal of improving access across the capital markets”.

Co-founder and CEO Chris Pento says: “We founded Clear Street to replace the outdated tech infrastructure being used across capital markets.

“It shouldn’t take six months to open an account or a year to begin trading a new asset class. Clients are demanding better technology and better service.”

The company claims that since the beginning of 2021 it has experienced a 220% increase in financing balances and 510% growth in equity transactional volume.

It currently processes more than $3 billion in daily trading volume.