United Fintech acquires Cobalt to boost FX & Digital Asset offering

By Gloria Methri

United Fintech, the end-to-end solution for banking technology has completed its acquisition of Cobalt, the provider of critical risk and data services to the FX and digital asset markets.

Founded in 2015, Cobalt provides core shared ledger infrastructure for banks in FX trading and digital assets. The company’s platform leverages blockchain-derived concepts to create a single, shared view of every transaction and remove the need for reconciliation across siloes and multiple systems.

This allows foreign exchange traders to reduce credit risk and cost-efficiently. Cobalt’s current customer base includes top-tier banks like Deutsche Bank, Citi Bank, Barclays, BNP, Natwest, ABN Amro, and Standard Chartered Bank.

United Fintech will onboard Cobalt, its clients, and employees onto its platform while Cobalt will continue to operate as a standalone company under United Fintech. United Fintech CEO and founder, Christian Frahm, will be appointed as the new Chairman of Cobalt, and Cobalt’s co-founder & Chief Product Officer Andrew Coyne and CEO Darren Coote will continue to lead the business day-to-day.

Commenting on the latest acquisition, Christian Frahm, founder, and CEO, United Fintech said, “It is incredibly exciting to welcome some of the financial industry’s accomplished leaders to the United Fintech family. Cobalt is at the forefront of critical institutional trade infrastructure for foreign exchange and digital assets, leading the field in innovation that empowers banks to keep pace with the ever-evolving capital markets. Cobalt’s technology is a great addition to our global range of products and services and I look forward to the new phase of our growth journey together.”

Andrew Coyne, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, Cobalt, added, “I am very happy that Cobalt is now part of the United Fintech family. They will help us accelerate shared infrastructure adoption for the benefit of all market participants. This will allow our clients to access markets more efficiently, with better control and lower cost.”

This is United Fintech’s fifth acquisition since launching in 2020. The company has so far acquired FairXchange, TTMZero, Athena Systems, and NetDania.