Ilan Leshem and John Bentinck

Primary Portal, the digital platform that aggregates and digitises equity capital market processes for banks and asset managers, has completed the first stage of its £7.5 million Series A funding round led by the venture capital arm of Deutsche Börse Group, DB1 Ventures. The round also saw further investment from existing shareholders Dutch Founders Fund (DFF) and Flow Traders. 

Drawing on over 20 years of experience in equity capital markets, founders John Bentinck and Ilan Leshem are transforming archaic and inefficient workflows in equity capital markets, which are still largely analogue, labour-intensive and error-prone.  

With over 90 banks and 400 institutional investors using the platform, Primary Portal is rapidly digitising the equity issuance space by creating the infrastructure that makes capital markets systems interoperable. 

“We are delighted to welcome Deutsche Börse as a shareholder and are very excited to work together with them in further enhancing connectivity and digitisation for capital markets” says Bentinck. “Their investment is a strong endorsement of our collaborative approach to bringing digital solutions to market participants”. 

With the new investment, the company will expand its offering, particularly by connecting asset managers' order management systems with banks, enabling straight-through processing in capital markets transactions for the first time. 

Additionally, Primary Portal will advance its analytical data solutions, providing powerful data and analytical tools to banks and asset managers. "The demand for AI-driven analytics products is immense. Adding next generation analytics on the back of real time, golden-source data is merely the beginning," says Leshem.  

“At Deutsche Börse, we believe in innovative solutions to shape capital markets and are committed to strengthening the ecosystem. By digitising communication and workflows, Primary Portal paves the way for efficient connectivity between asset managers and banks in equity issuances, improving the process for companies to raise capital. Our partnership and commitment underscore our confidence in Primary Portal, its hard-working team and the European equity market” says Stefan Maassen, Head of Capital Markets & Corporates at Deutsche Börse. 

Primary Portal expects further investors to join the round in a second close in the second half of the year.  

About Primary Portal 

Primary Portal is a fintech company focused on developing and operating digital infrastructure solutions for equity capital markets and on automating manual and time-consuming processes in the issuance process. For more information, please visit primaryportal.com.  

About Deutsche Börse Group and DB1 Ventures 

DB1 Ventures is the corporate venture capital arm of Deutsche Börse Group. Its mission is to be a strategic partner of choice for early-stage to growth-stage companies which are core or adjacent to Deutsche Börse Group’s strategy, generate attractive investment returns and add strategic value to its growth plans. 

As an international exchange organisation and innovative market infrastructure provider, Deutsche Börse Group ensures markets characterised by integrity, transparency and stability. With its wide range of products, services and technologies, the Group organises safe and efficient markets for sustainable economies. Its business areas extend along the entire value chain in exchange trading, including the admission, trading and clearing, and custody of securities and other financial instruments, the dissemination of market data, as well as the management of collateral and liquidity. As a technology company, the Group develops state-of-the-art IT solutions and offers IT systems all over the world. 

About Dutch Founders Fund 

DFF is an early-stage venture capital fund from Amsterdam, started by the people behind WeTransfer, Just Eat, Treatwell, and fonQ. DFF invests in Vertical SaaS, B2B marketplaces and other businesses that are built upon network effects; backing founders all over Europe and MENA region in the (pre)seed stage. Since its launch in 2018, the fund has invested in more than 30 companies. DFF has approx. 100m EUR in AuM. 

About Flow Traders 

Flow Traders is a global liquidity provider, lowering trading costs for market participants by delivering higher execution quality. Flow Traders Strategical Capital invests into companies that increase transparency and efficiency in global financial markets, in alignment with Flow Traders’ strategic agenda.