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January 11, 2022 - Leading global market-maker Citadel Securities announced today that Sequoia and Paradigm have made a $1.15 billion minority investment in the firm, valuing Citadel Securities at approximately $22 billion. Sequoia led the round, with the investment coming from Sequoia Heritage, Sequoia Capital Global Equities and the Global Growth Fund. Sequoia Partner Alfred Lin will join the Citadel Securities Board of Directors. This is the first time that Citadel Securities has taken outside investors.
Citadel Securities' institutional business serves more than 1,600 clients, including many of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds and central banks.
"The talent of our extraordinary market making team combined with our powerful risk management techniques have transformed the client experience in the many markets we serve," said Citadel Securities Chairman Ken Griffin. "In Sequoia and Paradigm, we have partners that appreciate how the strength of our market expertise, advanced predictive analytics and superlative software engineering can redefine an industry. We look forward to their partnership and to welcoming Alfred to our Board as Citadel Securities accelerates its growth."
Citadel Securities CEO Peng Zhao commented, "Many companies that have transformed the world have achieved their highest ambitions with Sequoia as their partner. As technological innovation in financial markets becomes only more important, we see enormous opportunities to meet the needs of our clients across more markets and more products. Our partnership with Sequoia and Paradigm puts us in an even stronger position as we continue to scale our business, broaden into new markets and attract the world's most brilliant minds."
"Citadel Securities has carved out a unique place in the financial markets through its ability to absorb and price risk using techniques and capabilities from far outside the traditional world of Wall Street," said Sequoia Partner Alfred Lin. "Citadel Securities' commitment to solving for the needs of its clients through advanced analytics and technology has helped make markets more accessible for millions of people. We are proud to partner with Citadel Securities in its mission of being the leading market maker in existing and emerging asset classes around the world. Many of our most successful investments have been in companies that share the client-centric ethos that defines Citadel Securities."
"Citadel Securities has developed software and algorithms that have driven substantial improvement to market structures for the benefit of institutional and retail investors everywhere," said Matt Huang, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Paradigm. "We look forward to partnering with the Citadel Securities team as they extend their technology and expertise to even more markets and asset classes, including crypto."
