Clear Street
Clear Street replaces legacy prime brokerage infrastructure with cloud-native capital markets platform.
Clear Street is a cloud-native capital markets platform that replaces legacy 1970s-80s mainframe infrastructure with modern real-time ledger technology. It unifies trading, risk management, financing, clearing, and custody for institutional clients on a single platform. The company serves sophisticated institutional investors—hedge funds, market makers, and ETF issuers—who are too complex for retail platforms but underserved by major bulge-bracket prime brokers. Clear Street generates revenue primarily through net financing (margin, securities lending, and collateralized financing) rather than commissions.
Problem solved
Prime brokerage firms operate on outdated COBOL-based mainframe systems built in the 1970s-80s that lack real-time visibility, flexibility, and integrated risk management capabilities.
Target customer
Emerging hedge funds, multi-manager platforms, high-net-worth individuals, ETF issuers, market makers, and institutional investors with $10M+ in assets seeking prime brokerage-level service without the constraints of traditional Wall Street incumbents.
Founders
C
Chris Pento
Co-Founder & Former CEO (now Board Member)
35+ years in financial services and innovation; former Managing Director of Global Operations at Knight Capital Group.
U
Uriel Cohen
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman
Co-founder of Alpine Global Management with extensive capital markets experience.
S
Sachin Kumar
Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer
Technologist focused on building cloud-native platform infrastructure.
E
Ed Tilly
CEO (as of December 2024)
Former Chairman and CEO of Cboe Global Markets; grew CBOE's market cap from $2B to $18B; veteran trader and capital markets entrepreneur.
Funding history
Series B (Tranche 1)
$165M
May 2022
Led by Prysm Capital
· NextGen Venture Partners, Walleye Capital, Belvedere, NEAR Foundation, McLaren Strategic Ventures, Validus Growth Investors, Illia Polosukhin (NEAR founder), Moses Lo (Xendit founder), Alastair Trueger (Event Horizon Ventures)
Series B (Tranche 2)
$270M
April 2023
Led by Prysm Capital
· Previous Series B investors
Series B (Tranche 3)
$250M (approximate)
December 2023
Led by Prysm Capital
· Existing investors
Total raised:
$1.48B
Industries
Pricing
Not publicly available. Revenue model based on net financing (customer margin, securities lending, collateralized financing) and transaction revenues (commissions, clearing, locate fees).
Notable customers
Not disclosed. Serves 700+ institutional clients as of September 2025 with ~$17.2B in interest-bearing customer balances; clients prefer anonymity.
Integrations
Connects to banks, clearing houses (depositories), brokers, and exchanges to support client activity; leverages AWS for infrastructure.
Tech stack
jQuery (JavaScript libraries)
core-js (JavaScript libraries)
Open Graph
DocuSign
HSTS (Security)
Google Font API (Font scripts)
Apple iCloud Mail (Webmail)
jsDelivr (CDN)
Google Hosted Libraries (CDN)
Cloudflare (CDN)
Google Tag Manager (Tag managers)
Webflow (Page builders)
Amazon Web Services (PaaS)
OneTrust (Cookie compliance)
Amazon SES (Email)
Dropbox (Digital asset management)
Website
Competitors
Interactive Brokers
Traditional broker with broader retail offerings; less specialized in institutional prime brokerage services.
CIBC Capital Markets
Incumbent prime broker with legacy infrastructure; less modern cloud-native capabilities.
BTIG
Established prime broker; uses traditional systems versus Clear Street's cloud-native approach.
Saphyre
Alternative capital markets platform; positioning and capabilities not fully differentiated in available research.
IPC
Competitor in institutional capital markets; less emphasis on cloud-native infrastructure.
Montran
Capital markets technology provider; legacy-focused versus Clear Street's modern approach.
Why this matters: Clear Street is attacking a $10+ trillion prime brokerage market still dominated by legacy COBOL systems from the 1970s-80s. The company's cloud-native architecture, experienced leadership (new CEO Ed Tilly grew CBOE 9x), and $1.48B funding validate the massive opportunity to modernize one of finance's most entrenched infrastructure segments. With 700+ institutional clients and $17B+ in balances as of September 2025, Clear Street is demonstrating real traction in displacing incumbents.
Best for: Institutional investors and traders ($10M-$500M+ AUM) who need modern prime brokerage infrastructure with integrated trading, risk management, and financing capabilities without being large enough to negotiate favorable terms with Wall Street incumbents.
Use cases
Emerging hedge fund scaling operations
A Series B hedge fund managing $150M in AUM needs institutional-grade prime brokerage services but lacks the leverage to negotiate favorable rates from major banks. Clear Street provides real-time position visibility, integrated risk management, and competitive financing rates on a modern platform, eliminating the need for multiple vendor relationships.
Multi-manager platform consolidation
A platform managing capital for 50+ sub-advisors struggles with fragmented systems across clearing, custody, and financing. Clear Street unifies all three functions on a single ledger, providing portfolio managers real-time transparency and dramatically reducing operational overhead and reconciliation errors.
Market maker capital efficiency
High-frequency trading firms and market makers need sub-millisecond access to real-time margin and collateral data to optimize capital deployment. Clear Street's cloud-native real-time ledger provides this visibility, allowing traders to maximize leverage efficiency and reduce idle capital.
ETF issuer infrastructure
ETF sponsors managing multiple funds need integrated custody, securities lending, and creation/redemption settlement. Clear Street handles all three, providing transparency into securities lending revenue and automating complex fund operations without legacy system constraints.
Alternatives
Interactive Brokers
Broader retail and institutional platform with mature service but legacy infrastructure; better for firms needing maximum market access breadth versus modern infrastructure.
Fidelity Capital Markets
Established incumbent prime broker with deep institutional relationships; choose if you prioritize relationship management and established market infrastructure over modern cloud-native technology.
Goldman Sachs Prime Services
Tier-1 prime broker for mega-funds; choose only if managing $1B+ and need white-glove service and specific regulatory/counterparty relationships.
FAQ
What does Clear Street do? +
Clear Street is a cloud-native capital markets platform that replaces legacy 1970s-80s mainframe infrastructure used by prime brokers. It unifies trading, risk management, financing, clearing, and custody on a single real-time ledger, serving institutional investors including hedge funds, market makers, and ETF issuers.
How much does Clear Street cost? +
Pricing is not publicly available. Clear Street's revenue model is based on net financing (customer margin debit/credit, securities lending, collateralized financing) and transaction revenues (commissions, clearing fees, locate fees) rather than traditional per-user or asset-based fees. Contact Clear Street directly for pricing.
Who should use Clear Street? +
Emerging hedge funds, multi-manager platforms, high-net-worth individuals, ETF issuers, and market makers with $10M-$500M+ in assets who need institutional-grade prime brokerage services but are too small to receive priority service from major Wall Street incumbents.
How does Clear Street compare to Interactive Brokers? +
Clear Street is purpose-built for institutional prime brokerage with modern cloud-native infrastructure and integrated risk management, while Interactive Brokers is a broader retail and institutional platform using more traditional technology. Clear Street specializes in the mid-market institutional segment; Interactive Brokers serves a wider spectrum from retail to institutional.
What makes Clear Street different from traditional prime brokers? +
Traditional prime brokers like Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan operate on COBOL-based mainframe systems from the 1970s-80s with significant technical debt. Clear Street replaces this with cloud-native architecture offering real-time transparency, faster settlement, integrated risk management, and competitive financing—without the relationship premium charged by bulge-bracket firms.
How many clients does Clear Street serve? +
As of September 2025, Clear Street serves over 2,000 clients total, including 700+ institutional clients with approximately $17.2 billion in interest-bearing client balances. Client identities are kept confidential per client preference.
When was Clear Street founded and how much funding has it raised? +
Clear Street was founded in 2018 and has raised $1.48 billion in funding, including $685 million in Series B funding across multiple tranches from 2022-2023, led by Prysm Capital. The company was valued at $2.1 billion as of December 2023.
Tags
prime brokerage
capital markets
cloud infrastructure
legacy modernization
institutional finance
real-time ledger
clearing and custody