Algomi, a network company providing information-matching solutions for the optimization of fixed income liquidity, has announced that more than 50 buy-side firms are committed to its Honeycomb network globally.
Algomi’s Honeycomb Network allows investment firms to see which dealer is best placed to facilitate illiquid bond trades without disturbing the markets and having the price move against them.
The company soft-launched Honeycomb to the sell-side in the spring of 2014, and buy-side firms started to join the network towards the end of the year. Algomi continues to add hedge fund, asset management, pension fund, sovereign wealth fund and endowment clients from offices in New York, London and Hong Kong, and client support and sales in Chicago, San Francisco, and Boston.
According to Algomi, there are now 10 banks installed or installing the Honeycomb network and 50 buy-side firms, with more coming online each week. “We’ve gone from a small start-up to a global company, working with many of the largest names in banking and asset management in under three years,” said Algomi co-founder and CEO Stu Taylor. “The reason for this is the recognition that voice fixed-income trading can be more efficient. With Algomi’s technology and network, firms now have access to information that helps to make illiquid trades actually happen.”
Algomi’s growth stems from changing market conditions in the fixed income market, driven by regulation stipulating that banks are now unable to warehouse the risk associated with illiquid bonds on their balance sheets.
“Algomi is innovating the way the buy-side and sell-side trade fixed income securities, all while showing the overwhelming importance and dominant value of voice trading by empowering sales and trading operations,” said Howard Edelstein, a strategic advisor to Algomi and long-time investor in financial technology companies.