Key Takeaways:
Two of the largest institutions at the center of US markets are backing a startup rebuilding securities finance infrastructure from the ground up.
Provable Markets, the SEC-registered broker-dealer operating the Aurora alternative trading system for securities finance, raised a Series B round led by Charles Schwab Corp. with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. joining as a new investor. The platform now processes more than $30 trillion in monthly order volume, a figure that has set records for four consecutive quarters.
"At Schwab, we value supporting innovative firms and technology that strengthen the financial services ecosystem and enable Schwab to meet the needs of our clients," Howie Kennedy, managing director of securities lending at Charles Schwab, said. "Provable Markets supports that objective by helping modernize securities finance workflows through automation, connectivity, and scalable solutions."
The cloud-native platform provides end-to-end coverage of securities finance transactions — from pre-trade analytics through execution on its ATS to post-trade settlement via direct connectivity with DTCC's National Securities Clearing Corp. and Depository Trust Co., the OCC, and tri-party agents. Clients accessing NSCC's SFT Clearing Service through Aurora can realize capital relief under Basel regulatory frameworks, a feature that has driven adoption among large broker-dealers. Existing investors Dialectic Capital Management and Inkef also participated in the round.
Securities finance — the roughly $4 trillion market for stock lending, repo, and collateral management — remains one of the most manually intensive corners of capital markets. Provable Markets is attacking the problem by replacing fragmented workflows with a single, cloud-native system that automates what has historically required multiple phone calls, spreadsheets, and back-office reconciliations. The company plans to use the Series B capital to expand its commercial, product, and engineering teams, deepen connectivity into core market infrastructure, and pursue geographic expansion.
Aurora's $30T Milestone and the Capital Relief Play
The $30 trillion monthly volume figure places Aurora among the largest electronic platforms for securities finance, though the market itself is dominated by bilateral, voice-brokered transactions. Provable's matching engine, housed within its SEC-regulated ATS, automates trade execution on a neutral platform — a design intended to attract both large asset managers and hedge funds that have historically been wary of trading on platforms owned by major banks. The post-trade handoff to Aurora's settlement module eliminates what Matt Cohen, co-founder and chief executive officer, called "historical bottlenecks that cannot be fixed through front-end workflow solutions alone."
What Schwab and DTCC's Backing Means for the Market
The involvement of Charles Schwab — the third-largest US broker by assets — and DTCC, the central clearing and settlement utility for virtually all US securities transactions, signals that securities finance modernization has moved from niche fintech experiment to mainstream infrastructure priority. For Schwab, the investment provides its securities lending desk with direct access to a growing electronic liquidity pool. For DTCC, backing Provable aligns with its strategy to expand central clearing in the securities finance market, a push that regulators have encouraged as a way to reduce systemic risk.
"By supporting and connecting to innovative platforms like Provable, we are helping create a more efficient and scalable securities finance ecosystem," Brian Steele, managing director and president of clearing and securities services at DTCC, said.
The funding round validates a thesis that securities finance infrastructure is ripe for disruption, but the real test will be adoption velocity. Provable's ability to convert bilateral flow onto its electronic platform will determine whether it becomes core market infrastructure or a niche utility. For investors, the clearest signal is that two of the most systemically important institutions in US markets have placed a bet — and a balance sheet — behind the answer.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
