Thameside Investment Group takes strategic stake in ASMX
MULTI-ASSET investment manager Thameside Investment Group has taken a strategic stake in ASMX, the new blockchain-based secondary market platform for trading global private debt.
ASMX is developing a new secondary market that will allow peer-to-peer lending platforms and other loan originators to integrate with its blockchain technology, in order to boost liquidity. A number of P2P platforms have already signed up, including The House Crowd and Huddle Capital.
“Part of the plan has been to have an institutional element to the system where traders and asset managers can access the loans originated by integrated platforms,” said Alex Benger, business development director of ASMX.
“To achieve this, we needed to partner with a strong team who believe in our mission of providing liquidity in the private debt space. Thameside Investment Group share our vision and understand exactly what we are aiming to achieve and have the expertise within the industry to help us achieve our goals.”
Read more: P2PFN’s special report on blockchain
Martin Holland, chief executive of Thameside Investment Group, said his firm was very impressed with the ASMX platform and the experienced team behind it.
“They have combined the key trading and settlement elements, through a combination of DLT and FIX to result in what we believe is a significant shift in secondary market technology,” he added. “When brought together with the expertise and network that ASMX has successfully developed it will provide an institutional grade trading destination for the P2P debt market.”
ASMX said that its platform will enable smaller lenders to attract institutional investment.
“The time and effort required for due diligence of platforms and loans is too much if deploying small amounts of capital,” said ASMX.
“However, through ASMX, institutional investors and asset managers will be able to deploy capital over multiple platforms that have been vetted by ASMX thus increasing liquidity across the whole ecosystem.”
The total volume of institutional assets under management allocated to private debt is estimated to be around $638bn, according to ASMX.
Read our exclusive interview with ASMX chief executive David Bradley-Ward here, where he discusses the P2P sector and the new platform.