Appital, a fintech company specializing in peer-to-peer price discovery and liquidity sourcing for asset managers, announced today (Tuesday) an expansion of its European equity coverage through a partnership with Virtu Financial.

Appital Expands European Reach, Partners with Virtu to Boost Liquidity

The collaboration adds Virtu's POSIT MTF as an execution venue, increasing Appital's reach to more than 21,000 equities across 24 European countries. Additionally, Virtu Financial will serve as an executing broker for client flows negotiated on Appital's BookBuilder platform.

This move comes as Appital reports substantial growth, with $13.5 billion of buy-side liquidity now available on its platform. The company has signed up 43 asset managers representing over $20 trillion in assets under management (AUM), with an additional 60 firms managing $30 trillion AUM in the onboarding process.

Brian Guckian, Chief Business Development Officer at Appital, emphasized the client-driven nature of the partnership. “Our collaboration with Virtu Financial was driven by client demand and provides asset managers with price discovery and execution capabilities in outsized equity positions, within a seamless workflow,” Guckian stated.

The partnership builds on an existing relationship between the two firms, following the integration of Virtu's Triton Valor EMS with Appital's BookBuilder platform in April 2023.

“We aim to help institutional clients discover quality liquidity while maintaining anonymity and minimizing market impact. We do this by leveraging cutting-edge technology to deliver liquidity to the global markets and innovative, transparent trading solutions to our clients,” added Rob Boardman, CEO of Virtu Execution Services in the EMEA. “The collaboration with Appital gives our clients additional liquidity and price discovery functionality in a market for size.”

The expansion comes at a time when asset managers are increasingly seeking efficient ways to access liquidity in less liquid stocks and execute large orders with minimal market impact. Appital's platform allows buy-side firms to source cross-border liquidity in stocks ranging from large-cap to highly illiquid small and mid-cap names, often in volumes representing multiple days of average daily trading volume.

What’s New in Appital

Appital has further enhanced its offerings and expanded its team. The company recently completed an integration project, linking its Insights tool with FactSet's Portware Execution Management System (EMS). This development allows asset managers utilizing Portware to seamlessly access Appital Insights liquidity directly from their familiar EMS interface, greatly improving operational efficiency.

In conjunction with this integration, Appital has unveiled a new feature within Appital Insights called “Appital Trending Equities.” This functionality empowers buy-side deal originators to proactively create unique liquidity opportunities in the market before initiating a transaction, potentially leading to improved execution outcomes.

The company recently welcomed John Coules to its business development team. Coules brings a wealth of experience to the role, having spent nearly two decades as a pan-European equities sales trader at a major global bank, preceded by a 13-year tenure at a prominent investment bank.