Octaura
New York, US · Founded 2022 · 103 employees on LinkedIn · 8 known investors
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Octaura provides electronic trading platforms and data analytics solutions for syndicated loan and structured credit markets. The platform modernizes fixed income trading by increasing liquidity, transparency, and efficiency in traditionally opaque markets.
Also known as Octaura Holdings · Project Octopus
Founders & leadership
Octaura was founded in 2022 by Brian Bejile.
Investors · 8
Also in the syndicate · 5
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements$46.5M disclosed across 1 round · 2025
- $46.5MStrategic round (oversubscribed)Jun 2025 · 3 sources
Apollo, Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, MassMutual Ventures, Moody's, Morgan Stanley, Motive Partners, OMERS Ventures, Wells Fargo
Source ↗
Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Octaura (legal entity Octaura Holdings) is a New York-based provider of electronic trading, data and analytics solutions for syndicated/leveraged loans and collateralized loan obligations (CLOs). Founded in 2022, it operates two trading platforms — one for secondary loan trading and one for CLOs — plus an "Insights" data business. The loan platform supports multiple execution protocols including bilateral trading, request-for-quote (RFQ) and list (portfolio) trading, and is used for workflows such as CLO warehouse ramps, print-and-sprint executions and portfolio liquidations. The CLO platform centralizes management of BWIC (bids wanted in competition) lists, notifications and bidding, replacing spreadsheet- and chat-based processes, and has added a "Live Feedback" workflow for CLO BWIC list trading.
Alongside execution, Octaura sells data and analytics products fed by proprietary platform trading data combined with historical and third-party data, marketed under names including Octaura Pricing and Octaura Liquidity Metrics (OLM), a toolset intended to quantify likelihood and ease of execution across assets. The company describes an internal engine, "Octaura Intelligence," as the source of pricing, liquidity metrics, visualizations and market news delivered to traders, portfolio managers, researchers and middle- and back-office teams. In June 2026 it launched an Insights platform in beta for the leveraged loan market, bringing its data feeds, liquidity intelligence and workflow analytics into a single interface.
The platform is built as a multi-asset-class, multi-protocol cloud system and integrates with order management systems used across the loan market, offering straight-through processing, FIX and API connectivity for front-office and operations users. A published integration with Siepe is intended to streamline syndicated loan and CLO trading workflows.
Founding story
The concept originated in 2021 as "Project Octopus," after a conversation at Grand Central between Brian Bejile, then a Citi managing director and global head of CLO issuer management, and Dave Trepanier of Bank of America. Bejile, born in Zimbabwe and a computer science and economics graduate of Haverford College, had automated CLO trading workflows at Citi, including customer bid collection for CLO BWICs on the CitiVelocity portal, demonstrating that CLOs could trade electronically. Citi agreed to support an agnostic multi-dealer platform, Bank of America joined, and the effort became a joint incubation and co-development initiative between the two banks, drawing on Citi's Velocity CLO eBidding platform and BofA's Instinct Loan Match platform.
Business model
Octaura operates a multi-dealer electronic marketplace connecting sell-side dealers and buy-side institutions in loans and CLOs, and complements execution with subscription-style data, pricing and analytics products (Octaura Pricing, Octaura Liquidity Metrics, Insights) derived from proprietary platform activity plus historical and third-party data. Specific pricing and fee terms are not disclosed.
Traction
Between April 2023 and April 2025 the loan platform's dealer network grew from 3 to 25 and buy-side participation from 34 to 146 firms; an earlier account cited 21 dealers and 131 buy-side firms as of September 2024. Marketing materials cite 29 dealers and more than 160 buy-side clients enabled, and over 150 buyside firms in the active user base. Secondary loan market share progressed from 1% in Q1 2024 to 4.6% around April 2025. The CLO electronic trading platform went live, and the loan platform passed its third anniversary.
Latest developments
In June 2025 Octaura closed an oversubscribed $46.5 million round and cited the pending launch of its CLO trading platform, which subsequently went live. The company appointed Cristina Kim as chief financial officer, introduced a "Live Feedback" workflow for CLO BWIC list trading, announced an integration with Siepe for syndicated loan and CLO trading, and in June 2026 launched its Insights platform in beta for the leveraged loan market with proprietary data feeds, liquidity intelligence and workflow analytics.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Octaura positions itself as electronifying markets historically traded by phone, chat and spreadsheet. It reported reaching 1% of secondary loan trading volume in Q1 2024, roughly 2% three months later, 3% later in 2024, and 4.6% of total market volume by around April 2025. Management notes prior industry attempts at loan trading platforms failed to address core client workflow problems, and that market participants had believed CLOs would not trade electronically.
Differentiators cited by the company include bank-consortium origins and ownership giving broad dealer participation, coverage of both leveraged loans and CLOs on one platform, multiple execution protocols including list trading built at client request, the proprietary Octaura Intelligence data engine feeding pricing and liquidity metrics, and deep integration with existing OMS and post-trade workflows.
Technology
A multi-asset-class, multi-protocol cloud trading platform supporting bilateral, RFQ and list trading, with straight-through processing, FIX and API connectivity and integrations to order management systems. Its proprietary "Octaura Intelligence" engine combines real-time proprietary trading data with historical and third-party data to generate pricing, liquidity metrics and visualizations; the platform processes hundreds of thousands of dealer runs and inquiries. Technology development is led by CTO Luis Carballo, previously CTO at Cencor, where he architected infrastructure for Mexico's BIVA exchange.
Go-to-market
The company sells directly to institutional market participants via demo requests and onboarding of dealers and buy-side firms, leaning on its bank founder-investors as both distribution partners and users, and on OMS/vendor integrations (for example with Siepe) to fit existing trading workflows. It also publishes market commentary ("On the Blotter"), press releases and podcasts to reach the loan and CLO trading community.
Sell-side dealers and buy-side institutions active in secondary leveraged loan and CLO markets, including traders, portfolio managers, researchers, and middle- and back-office operations teams; CLO managers building warehouses or liquidating portfolios are a specific use case.
Geography
Headquartered in New York City, with a market focus on the U.S. secondary leveraged loan and CLO markets; investors and dealer participants include global banks.
History
Octaura was formed in 2022 with backing from Citi, Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Moody's Analytics, following the 2021 Project Octopus incubation. Loan trading launched in 2023 and scaled through 2024 with the addition of list-based protocols. The CLO electronic trading platform went live, and in June 2025 the company raised $46.5 million from founding and new strategic investors. Cristina Kim, formerly a managing director in J.P. Morgan's Strategic Investments Group, joined as chief financial officer, and in June 2026 Octaura launched its Insights platform in beta.
Risks & controversies
Management has described resource and prioritization constraints in addressing the breadth of loan-market workflow problems, and notes that earlier attempts at loan trading platforms failed because they did not solve core client problems. The company's ownership is concentrated among bank and asset-manager strategic investors who are also platform users. Credit Suisse, named among the original 2022 backers, does not appear among the investors listed in the 2025 round.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 7
launches, deals, and filingsNew platform combines Octaura's proprietary data feeds, liquidity intelligence and workflow-ready analytics in a single interface.
Octaura Holdings announced $46.5 million from founding investors Bank of America, Citi, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and Moody's, plus six new investors: Barclays, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Apollo and Motive Partners, MassMutual Ventures and OMERS Ventures. Proceeds earmarked for loan market share growth, the CLO trading platform launch and data/analytics development.
$46.5M source ↗
Octaura expanded its management team with Cristina Kim as CFO; she previously was a managing director in J.P. Morgan's Strategic Investments Group.
Octaura's CLO trading platform went live, accompanied by market commentary Q&A with CEO Brian Bejile on the launch.
A conversation between Brian Bejile and Dave Trepanier led to a joint incubation and co-development initiative between Bank of America and Citi, drawing on Citi's Velocity CLO eBidding platform and BofA's Instinct Loan Match platform.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Octauraoctaura.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Octaura do?
- Octaura runs electronic trading, data and analytics platforms for the leveraged loan and CLO markets.
- Who founded Octaura?
- Octaura was founded by Brian Bejile in 2022.
- Who are Octaura's investors?
- Octaura's investors include MassMutual Ventures, Motive Partners, OMERS Ventures.
- How much funding has Octaura raised?
- Octaura has disclosed $46.5M raised across 1 round.
- Where is Octaura headquartered?
- Octaura is headquartered in New York, US.