Major financial services firms are backing the digital voting platform amid global roll-out
A dynamic duo that learned the frustrating and inefficient way that shareholders vote by proxy while on the front line, are now heading a multi-million-dollar company poised for global expansion.
Dean Little and Jonathan Smalley spent many years working in the mailroom of Citigroup’s Equities and Securities Services (ESS) Custody Product group before seeing an opportunity for digital transformation and developing Proxymity.
The end-to-end digital investor communications platform directly connects issuers, investors, and their intermediaries to provide accurate, transparent, and more immediate data to improve business relations.
Originally developed as part of Citi, Proxymity announced Tuesday (5/5) that it will spin-off to its own entity with Little and Smalley as CEO and COO respectively.
"We're extremely proud of what Proxymity has achieved so far within Citi since we developed the platform in 2017. To date, Proxymity has supported over 3,000 shareholder meetings and, after successful pilots, we've fully launched the platform in the UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, Austria, and Australia, as well as a pilot in Spain," said Little.
Major backing
The new firm has some heavyweight backing, raising US$20.5 million from a consortium comprising Citigroup, BNY Mellon, Clearstream, Computershare, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, and State Street.
The aim is to now scale and grow rapidly worldwide, initially in the EMEA markets. The firm believes that the challenges brought about by the coronavirus pandemic creates a unique opportunity to assist businesses in connecting and communicating with investors.
"Proxymity exemplifies the power of innovation that comes from within a global institution like Citi and the pace at which we can drive change at scale," shared Emily Turner, Head of Innovation & Business Development, Citi Institutional Clients Group. "Because of Dean and Jon's deep expertise and understanding of the problems issuers and investors face, Citi immediately saw the potential for Proxymity and we were excited to support the development of this platform."
In addition to a commercial team based in London, Proxymity will maintain a technology and R & D team in Tel Aviv, Israel.
