S&P Global leads the round; Kaiko’s Series B financing expands to $110 million
On September 14, the crypto market data provider Kaiko announced that it has been led in its latest strategic investment round by S&P Global. The company’s Series B financing has been expanded to $110 million, and the funds will be used to strengthen data services for digital assets and the tokenization market, as well as the data infrastructure required for on-chain finance.
This round of investment involves multiple traditional financial and cryptocurrency industry institutions, including BNP Paribas, the French public investment bank Bpifrance, Broadridge, the Canton Foundation, Coinbase Ventures, DRW Venture Capital, Nasdaq Ventures, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Stellar, and Susquehanna Private Equity Investments.
Kaiko’s existing shareholders, Anthemis, Point Nine, and Revaia, also participated in this capital increase.
Kaiko CEO Ambre Soubiran said that this round of investment spans industries across digital asset markets, including pricing, trading, capital allocation, and blockchain development. It reflects that the scope these institutions are betting on has expanded beyond Kaiko’s current business to the data infrastructure needed for future on-chain capital markets.
Founded in 2014, Kaiko currently provides digital asset market data, analytics, indices, and on-chain data services. It covers more than 150 exchanges and protocols. Its clients include banks, asset management firms, exchanges, and other financial institutions.
Traditional finance moves in en masse, setting up a working group to study the tokenization market
Another important arrangement in this funding is that the institutions participating in the investment will join the “Strategic Industry Working Group” hosted by Kaiko to jointly research the data and infrastructure needed for the tokenization market.
Kaiko believes that digital asset markets operate around the clock, so the related financial infrastructure also needs 24/7 data transmission and pricing capabilities. As traditional assets such as U.S. Treasury bonds, money market funds, stocks, and bonds gradually become tokenized, financial institutions need standardized data that can bridge both on-chain and off-chain environments.
Kaiko’s current data infrastructure mainly covers three areas: providing proprietary market data to smart contracts, converting on-chain financial activity into standardized off-chain data, and offering valuation and analytics tools for institutions.
Cathy Clay, CEO of S&P Dow Jones Indices, said that Kaiko’s capabilities in crypto market data and analytics can convert complex trades and on-chain activity into information usable by financial institutions, improving transparency in the digital asset market.
Joe Bonnaud, head of global markets for EMEA at BNP Paribas, said that as tokenized finance continues to develop, demand for reliable infrastructure, transparency, and trustworthy data in the market will also increase.
Just integrated with S&P’s index business; the collaboration is further upgraded
This time S&P Global’s direct investment in Kaiko also continues the recent collaboration between the two in the digital asset index market. On September 1, S&P Dow Jones Indices and Kaiko announced the launch of “S&P Kaiko Digital Asset Indices,” integrating their existing crypto asset index products into a single branded framework.
Kaiko is responsible for data sourcing, index calculation, and methodology support.
The S&P Dow Jones Indices provides global licensing, product distribution, and benchmark administration.
When the series was launched, it covered more than 4,000 digital asset reference interest rates and indices, supporting financial products such as ETPs, futures, options, and structured products.
Kaiko will also extend its benchmark interest rate business to U.S., South Korean and Hong Kong stocks and ETFs. Relevant data can be provided off-chain via an API, and can also be sent on-chain through its Data On-Ramp oracle network, supporting applications such as collateral valuation, mark-to-market pricing, and perpetual contracts.
S&P Global further became a Kaiko shareholder from its index partnership. The relationship between the two has also expanded from product and data collaboration to the capital level.
Acquire two companies to expand its footprint, targeting the data layer of on-chain capital markets
Kaiko has also expanded its business footprint through acquisitions. It has acquired DeFi infrastructure services provider Cometh and digital asset market data provider Amberdata.
Among them, Cometh holds a CASP (crypto-asset service provider) qualification under the EU’s MiCA framework (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation). Amberdata is also one of Kaiko’s main competitors in the U.S. market. The two acquisitions further strengthen Kaiko’s capabilities in the U.S. market, DeFi technology, and regulation.
Kaiko has also obtained SOC 1 and SOC 2 Type 2 certifications. Its Kaiko Indices, meanwhile, have obtained the benchmark administrator qualification under the EU Benchmarks Regulation (EU-BMR).
As traditional financial institutions increase their allocation to tokenized assets, the market needs to process large volumes of data for trading, valuation, risk management, collateral, and settlement. Kaiko aims to extend its data business originally serving the crypto trading market further into the infrastructure layer of on-chain capital markets.
“S&P Global leads Kaiko’s Series B funding round; the round expands to $110 million.” This article was first published on “Crypto City.”