Qapita partners with Citi to develop its private market trading platform

By Leandra Monteiro

Singapore-based Qapita, which earlier announced its Series A round of USD 15 million co-led by East Ventures (Growth Fund) and Vulcan Capital added that it has secured a partnership with Citi. Citi has joined the Series A round, which will help the company accelerate its platform which includes the private company marketplace. Qapita plans to facilitate liquidity solutions via a digital marketplace enabling transactions for companies between investors and employee stakeholders.

Qapita expects the value of private securities in this region to exceed USD 1.0-1.5 trillion (with 200-250 unicorns) in the next few years and that scalable digital solutions will be critical for such an ecosystem to thrive. Qapita’s equity management software solves pain points relating to HR (ESOP), finance and fundraising for private companies, investors, shareholders and employees. Its marketplace will enable secondary transactions for these stakeholders. Qapita estimates that more than USD 150 billion of equity will need liquidity solutions.

This partnership will serve the growing market for private company secondary liquidity. Qapita has already built a CapTable and ESOP management platform and intends to launch a private company marketplace to offer one unified platform to its clients that will:

• Record, manage and report all aspects of equity ownership – ESOPs and CapTables
• Allow for custom, issuer friendly liquidity programs to be setup and run
• Build standardized and scalable rails for private market transactions
• Allowing transparency, accessibility and efficiency to investors seeking exposure to this asset class

Announcing the same, Ravi Ravulaparthi, CEO and Cofounder of Qapita said, “Our quest is to build a unified platform that addresses all matters relating to equity for a private company. The private market in this part of the world is set to be US$1.0 – 1.5 trillion in value. This market needs an operating system and transaction rails to make it transparent, accessible and efficient. This partnership with Citi will help us accelerate this mission. We look forward to more such partnerships with ecosystem players.”

Deepak Mehra, Citi’s Asia Head of Strategic FinTech Investments & Digital Solutions added, “This partnership highlights our focus on market structure innovation in the rapidly scaling private markets across the region. Qapita has a clear vision and an impressive team, and we are pleased to help accelerate their creation of a platform to foster liquidity in the market. The partnership also marks our continued commitment to invest in private markets globally in addition to FinTech and innovation across South-East Asia and India.”