Deutsche Börse Group has acquired DLT-based decentralised finance (DeFi) platform, FundsDLT. In a press release, the German exchange operator says that the acquisition is a “critical and natural step” in its digital strategy and expects to complete the sale in Q4 2023 or Q1 2024, depending on regulatory approval.
Deutsche Börse Group’s Clearstream became a minority stakeholder in the Luxembourg-based FundsDLT in a series A funding round in March 2020, along with Credit Suisse Asset Management (now UBS Asset Management) and Natixis Asset Manager. The exchange operator has bought out its fellow shareholders to complete this latest acquisition.
Deutsche Börse says that FundsDLT’s technology and services will become “an integral part of Clearstream’s fund service offering.” It also expects the acquisition to expand the start-up’s technology to a more “industrial scale”, and to “drive existing live blockchain-based end-to-end fund transactions… allowing more efficient, scalable and faster fund investing for all market participants”.