JPX makes first fintech investment

JPX will use its minority stake to gain insight into risk management and fintech.

The Japanese Exchange Group (JPX) has made its first investment in the fintech space, taking a minority stake in derivatives risk analytics firm OpenGamma.

JPX has invested $1 million into the company, with which it intends to “deepen its relationship with OpenGammma, as well as to gain more insight and advanced technological capability in the fields of risk management and fintech,” it stated.

It is the latest capital injection for OpenGamma following a $13.3 million investment in October last year from NEX Group, Accel Partners, Euclid Opportunities, and former SunGard CEO Cristobal Conde.

“We’ve followed OpenGamma’s transformation from an innovator in the development of open source software into an important risk analytics provider for institutional finance,” said Takeshi Hirano, executive officer of JPX.

JPX has looked to expand into the fintech world, following a whitepaper it published last year on the use of hyper-ledger technology. In January, the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) permitted JPX to use fintech innovations, such as blockchain, as part of its trading platform, according to local reports.

OpenGamma is a UK startup providing an open-source analytics and risk management platform for derivatives trading to hedge funds, asset managers and banks. It allows firms to calculate their margin requirements when posting collateral to clearing houses.

“JPX has an established tradition of leading the charge to provide efficient and innovative management of risk for Japan’s financial and capital markets,” said Peter Rippon, CEO of OpenGamma. “This track record makes them ideal partners and catalysts for our mission of enabling derivatives users to make smarter trading and clearing decisions.”

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