United Fintech ties up acquisition of London risk management ledger platform Cobalt

Cobalt, a London-based developer of shared digital ledger infrastructures to enable secure foreign exchange and digital assets trading, was recently acquired by fintech in banking technology provider United Fintech.

United Fintech now has completed five acquisitions since it was founded two years ago, growing to a headcount of 150 over its New York, London and Singapore locations.

It previously bought the data science in financial markets startup FairXchange, digitisation RegTech player TTMZero, financial services software architects Athena and real-time commodities and forex forecasting tool Netdania.

Founded in 2015, Cobalt uses principles of blockchain to build digital shared ledgers for credit risk management on financial instruments traded in foreign exchange and digital assets.

The software includes a single, shared dashboard to provide visibility of all transactions in the trading clients' workflows. Cobalt's clients include a number of blue chip banks, the likes of Deutsche Bank, Citi, Standard Chartered and ABN Amro, while both Citi and Standard Chartered have invested in Cobalt previously.

Following the acquisition, Cobalt's clients and employees will join United Fintech while its assets will remain active as a standalone business under the United banner.

Christian Frahm, founder and CEO of United Fintech, commented: "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.

The transaction was arranged by London-based fintech advisory Royal Park Partners, whose co-founder and chief product officer Aman Behzad commented: "The future of fintech rests on pioneers like United Fintech, which expertly consolidates disjoined banking infrastructure and streamlines digital transformation.

"Cobalt’s innovation will enable United Fintech to serve the urgent demand for institutional-grade infrastructure for FX and digital assets. It’s an incredible match up of talent and infrastructure capability and a great step for the industry overall.”