I have started a new category of posts that I will call "Liquidity Events" to post on interesting sales, IPOs, or acquisitions. For my first post I wanted to take a moment to congratulate Currenex and its $564 mm acquisition by State Street. This is a company that I invested in back in 1999 as an angel when it was originally called FXtrades. Targeted at the huge foreign exchange market, this was one of the first companies to provide an internet based foreign currency exchange with both buy-side and sell-side members that included multi-nationals and financial institutions. At any rate, this company had a fiery start then during the precipitous tech downturn was on the brink of collapse. After a series of recapitalizations by management and outside financial investors, it managed to survive and recently facilitated a $108 billion day of forex trading on its platform. I was unfortunately washed out significantly in the recapitalizations and at one point was certain the company would shut its doors. Based on the recapitalizations I believe the venture investors have made a killing on this deal. This is a true testament to management to persevere through all this. This is also an excellent illustration of how it pays to "double down" or support companies at favorable valuations on the prospects of a rebound.
Congratulations Currenex!
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