Digital Securities
Acquisition Complete – OpenFinance Ownership Officially Transferred to INX Ltd.
After a months-long process, INX Limited has officially finished its acquisition of OpenFinance Securities. This acquisition will potentially see an existing 60,000 clients of OpenFinance migrate to a newly consolidated platform built for digital assets, and run by INX. Benefits of the deal run deeper however, with INX also expected to soon list its own digital securities sold in a record IPO.
Acquisition Timeline
Approaching nearly nine months, the process of this acquisition was a lengthy one. The need for such an acquisition by INX began much earlier however, when the company initially announced its intent to host an IPO of its own. The following is a brief timeline of how the deal manifested.
| 2019, Aug | INX files with Securities and Exchange Commission to host first tokenized IPO |
| 2020, Oct | INX and OpenFinance announce intent of acquisition |
| 2021, Jan | Acquisition terms sheet completed |
| 2021, Mar | INX initial public offering closes, generating $125M in capital |
| 2021, May | INX digital securities scheduled for July listing on OpenFinance |
| 2021, Jun | Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) grants final approval for acquisition |
Commentary
With final approval finally being granted by regulators surrounding this deal, Shy Datika, CEO of INX, took the time to comment.
“The acquisition of OpenFinance accelerates our time to market considerably in the digital securities space. In addition to the cryptocurrency exchange, we offer a digital security trading platform to investors. It is exciting to offer so many digital services under one roof. We look forward to adding more in the future.”
Token Listing
Now that final approval has occured, the final hurdle preventing the listing of INX Tokens on the newly consolidated platform has been cleared. As indicated, these tokens are scheduled to be listed sometime in July of 2021.
The listing of such assets on secondary marketplaces is key to offering investors the type of liquidity they are looking for. The aforementioned acquisition is coming at a key juncture, as various competitors (Securitize, Archax, etc.) continue to make progress in the development of their own offerings
A Growing Crop
With the successful IPO held by INX, we recently took the time to highlight another blockchain oriented company which helped make the endeavour possible – SPiCE VC.
Investing in early-stage startups within sectors such as blockchain, SPiCE VC saw promise in INX and brought the company in to its own portfolio. In the years following the launch of its fund, SPiCE VC has seen a trio of companies already ‘go public’ – with INX being one of these.
SPiCE VC notably offers digital securities of its own, known as SPiCE Tokens. These regulated assets provide holders with exposure to companies held within a portfolio/fund curated by SPiCE VC itself.
