Citadel Securities raises $1.15 billion from Sequoia Capital and Paradigm, now valued at $22 billion

Venture Capital • January 11, 2022, 8:40AM EST
The Block

Stock trading giant Citadel Securities announced Tuesday that it has raised $1.15 billion in a funding round backed by Sequoia Capital and crypto VC firm Paradigm.

This is Citadel Securities' first-ever external funding round since its founding in 2001. Sequoia invested in the company through its three funds — Sequoia Heritage, Sequoia Capital Global Equities, and the Global Growth Fund.

As part of the deal, Sequoia Capital partner Alfred Lin, will also join Citadel Securities' board of directors. Citadel Securities and Citadel, a hedge fund, share the same owner in Ken Griffin but are separate firms.

Citadel Securities is a global market-making leader, handling nearly 30% of all trading in the U.S., including equities, fixed-income and other assets. One of its biggest clients is Robinhood.

With fresh capital in hand, Citadel Securities plans to continue expanding globally. The company could also go public, although it doesn’t have immediate listing plans, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

"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," said Citadel Securities CEO Peng Zhao in a statement.

"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 currently does not trade cryptocurrencies due to regulatory uncertainties around them. The firm's founder, billionaire Griffin, has said that Citadel would trade cryptocurrencies if they were regulated, regardless of his personal opinion about them.

“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,” said Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner of Paradigm.

Griffin recently grabbed headlines in crypto media as he spent $43.2 million to buy an early copy of the US Constitution, outbidding ConstitutionDAO, which raised more than $40 million for its own effort.