Flowdesk, a Paris-based fintech in the crypto space, has finalized a $102 million financing round with venture capital firm HV Capital and asset manager BlackRock.
Flowdesk provides crypto trading services but is best known as a market maker. Market makers play an integral role in the crypto industry by working with token issuers and exchanges to ensure that buy and sell orders for every coin from Bitcoin to $TRUMP can be fulfilled at all times. Flowdesk works with 150 crypto exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken, as well as a number of exchange-traded fund issuers.
“Liquidity in crypto is very, very complex, much more complex than in traditional markets, where usually it’s a single venue and a single asset pair,” Flowdesk CEO Guilhem Chaumont told Fortune. “For this to have liquidity everywhere at any time, you basically need more coverage…And that’s why we come with this approach where we are covering the full asset range and the full scope of exchanges.”
Unlike average funding rounds, Flowdesk’s latest raise involves both equity and debt financing. Chaumont said that while he cannot disclose the exact breakdown, about 10% of the $102 million raised comes in the form of debt from BlackRock that will need to be repaid in the future. The rest is equity financing from HV Capital.
Chaumont says he decided to take on some debt in order to retain control of the company while increasing its cash reserves. “We are not going to scale our balance sheet with 100% equity, because that would get too much dilution for ourselves,” Chaumont said. “At the same time, we don’t want to wait for our profits to build that balance sheet, because it’s going to take years.”
While Chaumont declined to share the details of the debt agreement—like when the repayment is due and if it comes with interest—he said he is unworried about paying it back because the company is profitable and growing rapidly. Without disclosing exact numbers, he said, Flowdesk’s annual revenue increased eightfold in 2024.
The company produces revenue in multiple ways. Some of Flowdesk’s services are subscription-based. The company also charges fees for its over-the-counter trading and engages in proprietary trading—when a firm uses its own capital to invest in stocks, crypto or other assets to turn a profit.
Some of Flowdesk’s biggest competitors are crypto companies that offer market making services like Galaxy Digital, Cumberland, and Jump Crypto. But Chaumont says Flowdesk stands out because it operates as both a technology and financial services company, using its own software to facilitate trading for customers.
Most recently, Flowdesk closed a $50 million Series B led by Cathay Innovation in January of last year. With this financing round, the company has raised a total of $182 million since launching in 2020. Chaumont declined to share the company’s valuation in its latest funding round.
Chaumont says the company will use the money raised in this round to hire 100 employees in the next 12 months, to add to its current headcount of 150.
