Lee Fixel’s Addition led a funding round in AI-linked trading platform company OneChronos Markets LLC, amid a rush of interest in the booming artificial intelligence sector.
(Bloomberg) — Lee Fixel’s Addition led a funding round in AI-linked trading platform company OneChronos Markets LLC, amid a rush of interest in the booming artificial intelligence sector.
The ex-Tiger Global Management partner’s venture firm invested $30 million of new money, valuing OneChronos at $250 million, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
Representatives for Addition and OneChronos declined to comment.
OneChronos enables investors to bid for equities in an automated auction process that uses AI, disrupting the ages-old system for buying and selling stocks. It allows market participants to input what they determine is the value of assets, and matches buyers and sellers based on those expressed values. The platform started last year with Bank of Montreal, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. and more than a dozen other broker-dealers signed on.
Read More: New Trading Platform OneChronos Brings AI Auctions to Stocks
Addition made its investment without additional sweeteners such as preferential liquidation rights or discounted shares in a potential public offering, said the people. The Series B round, which closed this month, also included existing investors, who kicked in $10 million at different valuations. Their terms included sweeteners, some that were promised in a previous round, according to the people.
The firm also appointed Addition’s Andrew Miskiewicz as a OneChronos board observer, the people said.
Amid pressure on the industry and a flurry of down rounds, AI is one of the few sectors seeing strong valuations as interest in generative AI and ChatGPT soars.
OneChronos is one of the few early-stage deals Addition has made this year. Like many venture investors, Fixel’s firm has slowed deals as companies struggled with cash flow amid higher rates, pushing valuations lower. Overall, Addition has done eight deals so far in 2023, down from 33 last year, according to PitchBook.
New York-based OneChronos secured a $40 million valuation in a Series-A round in 2019. Two years later, existing investors including Y Combinator re-upped their investment, giving the company a valuation cap of $250 million, Bloomberg reported. In the latest round, some existing investors opted to participate so that they could maintain their pro-rata ownership stake, the people said.
Read More: New Trading Platform OneChronos Brings AI Auctions to Stocks
Fixel spent 13 years at Tiger Global, where he ran a $13 billion unit that focused on private investing. He left at 39 to start his own firm in 2019. Addition now manages more than $6.5 billion after launching with $1.3 billion in 2020. This year, the firm is looking to raise as much as $1.5 billion for its fifth venture fund, one of the people said. Addition is an investor in Stripe and Snyk.
–With assistance from Hema Parmar, Katie Roof and Sarah McBride.
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