iLex closes $4.5m Pre-Series A round

By Leandra Monteiro

iLex, a market infrastructure provider for syndicated loan and private debt markets, announced it has raised $4.5 million in new capital. The round was led by QBN Capital, with participation from existing and new investors. This brings iLex’s total equity fundraising to $8.5 million.

The funding will be used to accelerate iLex’s product roadmap and client acquisition across Asia Pacific and EMEA, as well as to expand the team to drive user adoption.

“The ongoing volatile market conditions and banks’ pressure on margins call for greater liquidity and efficiency in loan capital markets,” said Bertrand Billon, CEO and Founder of iLex. “This year, our objective is to bring iLex’s secondary trading platform to maturity and expand our primary syndication solutions to deliver our vision of the all-in-one next-gen distribution platform for primary, secondary and private credit markets that is connected, collaborative and secured.”

Billon added, “We have built solutions addressing market participants’ need for a modern and intuitive platform, supported by a large network of market participants. As we lead the industry’s transition from outdated market practices to digital solutions, our top priority this year is growing user adoption and delivering excellence in client services.”

Andy Tung, Managing Partner of QBN Capital, said “QBN Capital focuses on innovative fintech start-ups in capital markets bringing tangible changes to the industry and with a global ambition. iLex demonstrates potential through their disruptive and scalable solutions, team of industry veterans and partners, and fast-growing network of market participants. We are excited to support iLex in delivering much-needed modern market structure to this multitrillion asset class.”

Andy Tung will join iLex’s Board of Directors together with Darren Thomas from S&P Global, John Olesky, seasoned loan technology veteran, and Didier Valet, former deputy CEO of Société Générale Group.

In the coming year, iLex aims to build the largest and most active network of market participants in EMEA and APAC by onboarding several hundred more market participants and a majority of the top 50 bookrunners from the region. The company will also continue to significantly increase secondary loan market volumes on its platform and collaborate with ClearPar to roll out innovative solutions to the primary market.