Sequoia Capital has made a $20 million investment in Merlin Securities, a broker dealer specialising in technolgy driven prime brokerage services, in an expansion round of financing.
In 2007, Merlin was ranked the number one Prime Broker in surveys of hedge fund managers including the Global Custodian Magazine Survey of Prime Brokers and Institutional Investor’s Alpha Awards.
“We formed Merlin with a vision of the future of prime brokerage and services to investment managers. The investment by Sequoia Capital validates that vision and gives us the resources to continue to pursue it. We are very excited to be able to leverage their knowledge and expertise to build our business. We could not have asked for a better partner,” says Stephan P. Vermut, managing partner, Merlin Securities.
“We took a close look at the financial technology, prime brokerage and hedge fund spaces and believe that Merlin’s model of delivering superior reporting and trading technology combined with outstanding customer service to the hedge fund industry is the way of the future. As the hedge fund industry continues to be dominated by institutional investors, the reporting technologies, dedication to service and tight product integration offered by Merlin will provide an increasingly compelling value proposition,” adds Scott Carter, Sequoia Capital.
Merlin Securites was founded by industry pioneer Stephan Vermut, the former founder, president and CEO of Bank of America Prime Brokerage. Merlin’s products include multi-prime, multi-currency, attribution and risk applications for investment managers. Merlin currently boasts over 200 hedge fund clients globally and has exhibited over 100% revenue growth year over year since inception in 2004. Merlin’s technology has won several industry awards and was named an InfoWorld 100 company in 2006.