SIX, the global financial information provider, and BITA, a provider of indexing technology and services, announced that SIX has made a strategic investment in BITA to strengthen a series of existing joint projects and accelerate the expansion of SIX’s global benchmark platform.
Existing BITA shareholders, ETFS Capital, Volta Ventures and Pamica NV also invested in the round alongside SIX.
Recognizing the growing global demand for the scalable delivery of customized rules-based investment solutions, BITA has developed “a technology infrastructure that is currently leveraged by exchanges, delta one desks, and asset management firms in their daily operations.”
The firm’s flagship cloud-based system, BITACore, reportedly delivers “an intuitive user experience for the design, backtesting, calculation, and dissemination of a large variety of indices, baskets, and custom portfolios.”
The investment by SIX aims to strengthen “a series of collaborations between both firms. Starting in 2022 with an ongoing partnership to develop a new range of global equity indexes and accelerate the time-to-market for the delivery of customized solutions, the relationship has already expanded to the realm of crypto, where SIX has been leveraging BITA’s calculation infrastructure and APIs on a variety of indexing projects that have delivered significant value to SIX clients.”
Marion Leslie, Head Financial Information and Executive Board Member, SIX, said:
“At SIX, we are committed to providing innovative and efficient solutions to the Indexing and ETF industry. Our strategic investment in BITA strengthens our existing partnership and fuels our shared vision of a future where customized indexing solutions are accessible and scalable for all market participants. Together, we will leverage BITA’s cutting-edge technology and SIX’s global reach to deliver even greater value to our clients.”
The collaboration and subsequent investment “underpin SIX’s drive to expand its range of market-leading services catering to the ETF sector.”
From creation to redemption, listing, trading, and custody, including high-quality market, index, and reference data distribution, SIX says that it “offers the full spectrum of international ETF services along its value chain as a unique one-stop shop.”
Ultumus, an ETF data specialist acquired by SIX from ETFS Capital in 2021, is in fact already serving as sales and distribution agent and “allowing BITA to reach the sell-side with its newly launched custom basket management solution.”
Victor Hugo Gomez, CEO of BITA, said:
“Our growing, multifaceted business relationship with SIX is a perfect example of how our indexing infrastructure can support financial institutions in scaling their product development, cutting time to market, and increasing their flexibility. We are delighted to welcome SIX as an investor in BITA and look forward to leveraging their footprint as we continue our path towards becoming the leading investment customization infrastructure”.
The funds raised will be utilized by BITA to “enhance the functionality of its infrastructure and continue to expand into additional key markets.”