BondLink Raises $10 Million in Series A Funding to Transform the Municipal Bond Market
The fintech company provides technology to bond issuers like the State of Florida, the City of Chicago, and the University of Texas to share data and communicate more efficiently with bond investors
BOSTON, Jan. 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- BondLink, a Boston, Mass.-based provider of software to issuers in the roughly $4 trillion municipal bond market, today announced a $10 million financing round led by Franklin Templeton Investments, one of the largest municipal bond fund managers in the country.
The Series A financing included participation from Coatue. In conjunction with the funding, Robert Stevenson, vice president, portfolio manager and research analyst for Franklin Templeton Investments' Franklin Equity Group, will join BondLink's board of directors. BondLink intends to use the funds to accelerate and expand adoption of its software to the roughly 50,000 public sector bond issuers across the United States.
"BondLink was founded to move the muni bond market forward by empowering issuers with technology," said Colin MacNaught, BondLink's CEO and Co-Founder. "Public sector CFOs and treasurers can now share their data in real-time with investors. Better disclosure leads to a more efficient market, which benefits not only issuers and their investors, but taxpayers all around the country."
"Franklin Templeton Investments is one of the biggest investors in the municipal bond market, and we are very excited to work with them. Their investment in BondLink is a testament to the importance of disclosure and transparency in the market."
Stevenson's colleague Jennifer Johnston, vice president and research analyst in Franklin Templeton Fixed Income Group's Municipal Bond Department, said, "Good disclosure benefits all market participants, and we believe BondLink's portal will serve as a cost-effective and efficient way to help public sector issuers provide disclosure in a timely and transparent manner. By making it easy and affordable for public sector issuers to disclose information and for investors to find it, issuers, investors and taxpayers win."
About BondLink
Led by founders Colin MacNaught, CEO, and Carl Query, CTO, BondLink provides a cloud-based software-as-a-service investor platform to issuers who rely on private capital to fund the construction of roads, bridges, schools, tunnels and other public infrastructure. Roughly 75% of the public infrastructure across the country is built and maintained by state and local governments, who on average issue over $1 billion in bonds every day in the bond market.
The timely disclosure of issuer credit data to bond investors is a critical component of the efficiency of the approximately $4 trillion bond market. Over the last several years, regulators and market participants, including investor trade associations, have called for more transparency from issuers.
Since its investor platform went live last year, states, counties, cities, school districts, universities, hospitals, public utilities, and ports from Connecticut to California have started using BondLink to attract more investors through better disclosure.
Related Links: https://bondlink.com
CONTACT: Colin MacNaught, [email protected], 617-797-3632
SOURCE BondLink, Inc.
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