LSEG and Apex Group Digitize Private Fund Markets
The London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and Apex Group are collaborating to digitize the distribution of private funds on a digital market infrastructure. The initiative aims to provide API-first access to previously illiquid assets and accelerate the onboarding process for investors. This creates new opportunities for building analytics and products around alternative data sources.
- The underlying technology is LSEG's Digital Markets Infrastructure (DMI), a blockchain-powered platform built in partnership with Microsoft on Azure. It is designed to handle the entire asset lifecycle, including issuance, tokenization, distribution, and post-trade settlement. - Apex Group, the first global fund services provider to connect to the DMI, administers $3.5 trillion in assets. It will link to the DMI through its own platform, the Apex Digital Liquidity & Distribution Service, also known as Apex Digital 3.0. - The collaboration, set to go live in the first half of 2026, will integrate directly into LSEG's Workspace platform. This provides potential visibility for private funds to Workspace's more than 400,000 global users, subject to privacy and suitability controls. - The head of the initiative at LSEG is Dr. Darko Hajdukovic, Head of Digital Markets Infrastructure. The stated goal is to address inefficiencies in capital raising and investor discovery that have historically limited access to private market assets. - This private funds initiative is the first phase of a broader digital asset strategy for LSEG. The exchange group is also developing a Digital Securities Depository (DSD) to enable on-chain settlement for a wider range of tokenized assets, including fixed income and equities, also targeting a 2026 launch. - Prior to the Apex Group collaboration, LSEG's DMI platform had already processed an initial transaction with MembersCap as the fund's general partner and Archax operating as the nominee.
