Caceis, the asset servicing the Credit Agricole arm, has acquired a minority share in French Fintech Kriptown to support the launch of Lise, a blockchain-based exchange aimed at SMEs and mid-cap companies.
Lise, a short to Lightning Stock Exchange, is ready to be Europe’s first tokenized exchange focusing on streamlining stock funding and public lists for smaller businesses, Caceis said in a press release on Monday.
Lise is currently awaiting regulatory approval as a DLT trade and settlement system (DLT TSS) under the European pilot regime. If approved, it would allow companies to issue, trade and run financial instruments directly on a distributed headbok, cut down on time and costs associated with traditional IPO processes.
Lise would allow investors to trade with shares in a secondary market operating around the clock, without bottlenecks in standard clearing houses or long -term coordination of multiple intermediaries.
The move is in line with Caceis’ wider push in digital assets, which saw that it received MICA approval earlier this year.
Founded in 2018, Kriptown develops infrastructure to tokenization of financial instruments, which integrates both market and postal trafficking operations. Lise’s first IPO is scheduled for 2025, conditional on receiving the necessary approvals.
