SecondMarket, the New York-based secondary market for illiquid assets, has raised US$15m in Series B financing.
The investment was made by the Li Ka Shing Foundation, a charitable foundation founded by world-renowned entrepreneur Li Ka-shing, and Dunearn Investments (Mauritius) Pte. Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Singapore-based investment company Temasek Holdings (Pte) Ltd.
LKSF and Temasek each invested US$7.5m in the company.
The new funds will be used to further scale the SecondMarket platform and infrastructure in preparation for the company’s upcoming expansion into the Asian markets.
Currently with offices in New York and Silicon Valley, the company operates a secondary market for multiple asset classes, including private company stock, limited partnership interests, auction-rate securities, bankruptcy claims, residential and commercial mortgage-backed securities, collateralized debt obligations, warrants/restricted stock in public companies and whole loans.
SecondMarket, a registered broker-dealer (Member FINRA, MSRB and SIPC), conducted approximately US$2bn in transactions in 2009 . It has more than 8,000 participants including global financial institutions, hedge funds, private equity firms, mutual funds, corporations and other institutional and accredited investors.
Its shareholders include FirstMark Capital, New Enterprise Associates (NEA), and SVB Financial Group (NASDAQ: SIVB).
FinSMEs
23/02/2010