Wednesday, October 29, 2025

In a world of crypto and ‘exotic instruments’, traditional exchanges are thinking about how they ‘stay relevant’

Good morning, Asia editor Nick Gordon, filling in for Allie Garfinkle.

Fortune just wrapped up its Global Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The agenda featured several financial sector luminaries: Barclays CEO C. S. Venkatakrishnan, Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, DBS CEO Tan Su Shan and Bridgewater founder Ray Dalio.

I had to enjoy the Forum remotely this year due to another mega-event (the APEC CEO Summit in South Korea). But I made sure to tune in to Monday’s mainstage session with Eng. Khalid Abdullah Al Hussan, CEO of the Saudi Tadawul Group; Bonnie Chan, CEO of HKEX; and Bob McCooey, vice chair of Nasdaq.

After a couple of down years, blockbuster IPOs have come back this year. Nasdaq was home to two of the U.S.’s biggest listings this year: CoreWeave and Figma, which raised $1.5 billion and $1.2 billion respectively. Hong Kong’s listings are dwarfing those in the U.S.: battery maker CATL’s secondary listing in the Chinese city is still the year’s largest IPO, raising $5.5 billion back in May.

The global competition for IPOs can seem cutthroat at times, as exchanges pitch friendly regulations, investor knowledge, and deeper pools of capital to win listings from their competitors.

But Nasdaq’s McCooey on Monday claimed that he spent a lot of time suggesting that executives look at home first, before looking abroad.

“I believe that most companies belong in their local markets. I firmly do,” he said. “I don’t go to Hong Kong, China, Tokyo, Singapore, Argentina, and try to convince companies not to list in their local markets, because most companies do belong there.” (Lest one think McCooey was being too charitable, he also said Nasdaq has “the strongest value proposition” for those companies that do decide to list overseas.)

Exchanges aren’t just competing against each other anymore. “The pace of change–on the alternative platforms, on the sophistication of investors–it’s unheard of,” Al Hussan, from Tadawul, said. “I have been in this business for the last 18, 19 years. You wake up every morning, there’s a new channel, there’s a new way of doing things, there’s a new requirement.”

Chan, from HKEX, agreed, noting that budding investors have a lot more options, like cryptocurrency, commodities and other “exotic instruments.”

“We’re entering into a stage where exchanges are not really competing with one another,” she said. “We’re working together with one another to make sure that we all stay relevant.”

Still, Chan can certainly feel secure about her exchange’s prospects. Hong Kong’s stock markets are having a very good 2025 as investors flood into Chinese stocks. The city’s benchmark index, the Hang Seng, is up almost 35% for the year; by comparison, the Nasdaq 100 is up 22% over the same period.

“We went through a phase where there were questions as to the investability of Chinese stocks,” Chan noted Monday. But now, “we were able to see very strong appetite on the investor side,” she explained for companies in AI, semiconductors, green technology, and in what Chan dubbed “new consumption.”

“You know this thing called Labubu?” she asked Fortune’s audience. “I’ve visited a few cities recently–Paris, London–and I always see the Pop Mart store and the lines waiting to get their blind box.”

We’re going to continue the conversation on how the world of finance is changing—along with many other topics–at our next big global event, the Fortune Innovation Forum in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from Nov. 17-18.

Fortune Term Sheet podcast hosted by Allie Garfinkle graphic with photo of Allie, links to YouTube video

Term Sheet Podcast… Allie talks with Steven Eidelman, founder and CEO of Modern Animal, a tech-forward veterinary clinic with 28 locations across Texas and California. Last month Modern Animal raised $46 million in Series D funding after making 85% year-over-year growth in 2024. Allie and Steven discuss how the affordability crisis is impacting pet care, why he decided to disrupt the veterinary industry, how AI is integrated into Modern Animal, and more. Listen and watch here.

In other news, Lightspeed Venture Partners is expanding its brand beyond China. The firm tells Fortune that as of the end of the year, it will discontinue its brand licensing agreement with Lightspeed Capital China. Unlike Sequoia Capital, which spun off its China and India units in 2023, Lightspeed Capital China was always a separate, independently owned operation. Still, the ongoing trade and tech tensions between the U.S. and China are clearly part of the equation. “As we’re increasingly focused on investments in security, defense, and critical infrastructure, even a brand licensing connection could create confusion, so we wanted to make it crystal clear we don’t have any presence in China,” a Lightspeed spokesperson said. Lightspeed will continue to be actively involved in Europe, India, and Southeast Asia.—Alexei Oreskovic

Nick Gordon
X: @nickrigordon
Email: nicholas.gordon@fortune.com

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VENTURE DEALS

- Fireworks AI, a Redwood City, Calif.-based AI inference cloud platform, raised $250 million in Series C funding. Lightspeed Venture Partners, Index Ventures, and Evantic led the round and were joined by Sequoia Capital.

- Whatnot, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based live shopping platform, raised $225 million in Series F funding. DST Global and CapitalG led the round and were joined by Sequoia Capital, Alkeon Capital, and others.

- Sublime Security, a Washington, D.C.-based email security platform, raised $150 million in Series C funding. Georgian led the round and was joined by Avenir, 01A, Index Ventures, Citi Ventures, and Slow Ventures.

- ConductorOne, a San Francisco and Portland, Ore.-based AI-powered identity security platform, raised $79 million in Series B funding. Greycroft led the round and was joined by CrowdStrike Falcon Fund and existing investors.

- Curve Biosciences, a San Mateo, Calif.-based developer of an AI-powered platform designed to detect and monitor chronic disease, raised $40 million in funding. Luma Group led the round and was joined by First Spark Ventures, Techas Capital, and others.

- Formalize, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based compliance software company, raised €30 million ($35 million) in Series B funding. Action Capital and Blackfin Tech led the round and were joined by CIBC Innovation Banking and West Hill Capital.

- Syllo, a New York City-based AI-powered litigation platform, raised $30 million in funding from Venrock, Two Seas Capital, and others.

- Cyberridge, a Tel Aviv, Israel-based cybersecurity platform for data security, raised $26 million in funding from Awz, Arkin Capital, Redseed VC, and others.

- i6 Group, a Farnborough, U.K.-based aviation fuel management platform, raised $20 million in Series B funding. Yttrium led the round and was joined by existing investors.

- Agtonomy, a South San Francisco-based provider of AI and software services designed for agriculture automation, raised $18 million in Series B funding. DBL Partners led the round and was joined by Nuveen and existing investors.

- Spacial, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based AI-powered platform designed to automate residential engineering and permitting, raised $10 million in seed funding. TLV Partners led the round and was joined by Mango Capital, Re Angels, and HTV.

- Lula Commerce, a Philadelphia, Penn.-based digital commerce solutions platform for convenience retailers, raised $8 million in Series A funding. SEMCAP AI led the round and was joined by Rich Products Ventures, GO PA Fund, NZVC, UP.Partners, and others.

- Grasp, a Stockholm, Sweden-based platform designed to automate investment banking and management consulting work, raised $7 million in Series A funding. Octopus Ventures led the round and was joined by Yanno Capital.

- Tessaract, a London, U.K.-based legal platform designed to unite case management, billing, finance, and collaboration in one place, raised £4.6 million ($6.1 million) in funding. Mercia Ventures led the round and was joined by Fuel Ventures.

- Socratix AI, a San Francisco-based developer of AI agents for fraud and risk teams, raised $4.1 million in seed funding. Pear VC led the round and was joined by Y Combinator, Twenty Two Ventures, and others.

- Cylerity, a Madison, Wis.-based AI-powered platform designed to accelerate health care reimbursements, raised $4 million in seed funding. HealthX Ventures led the round and was joined by C2 Ventures, Upstreams Ventures, Wisconsin Investment Partners, and Tundra Angel.

- Forum AI, a New York City-based platform designed to evaluate how major AI systems handle subjective and high-stakes topics, raised $3 million in seed funding. Lerer Hippeau led the round and was joined by Perplexity AI’s venture fund.