Zodia Markets Acquires Elwood Technologies' OTC Trading Business

Zodia Markets, the digital asset trading arm of Standard Chartered, has completed the acquisition of the Jersey-based OTC trading business from Elwood Technologies. The acquisition of Elwood Capital Management (ECM) represents a strategic move for Zodia Markets in its effort to build a comprehensive digital asset business.

Usman Ahmad, co-founder and CEO of Zodia Markets, emphasized the significance of this acquisition in diversifying their service offerings and enhancing product capabilities. Ahmad stated, "This acquisition is a significant progression to create greater diversification in our service offering and footprint, enabling scale and accelerating product capability. Acquiring a successful, established business with a similar regulatory-first mindset allows us to extend our offering to the clients we will welcome and provide our existing clients with a broader suite of capabilities and value."

For Elwood Technologies, the sale signifies a strategic shift towards focusing on their institutional-grade SaaS products and services, including execution management and portfolio and risk management. Chris Lawn, CEO of Elwood, noted, "The sale of our OTC trading business supports Elwood's strategic plan to build a world-class end-to-end EMS and PMS software platform and allows us to fully dedicate our resources to the SaaS business."

Upon completion, the acquired entity will be known as Zodia Markets Jersey Ltd. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.