Equity capital marketplace Appital has raised £2.5 million from Frontline Ventures and a selection of unnamed angel investors.

The firm said its platform enables the buy-side community to get increased exposure to “deal flow and execution opportunities” in illiquid small and mid-cap stocks.

Appital said it will use the capital to accelerate the development of its technology infrastructure, integrate with more financial institutions and technology vendors, and to expand their engineering team.

The firm claim equity capital markets are “largely untouched” by automation and are plagued by legacy processes.

The news comes after Appital partnered with the London Stock Exchange Group’s (LSEG) trading platform Turquoise to launch bookbuilding technology for the buy-side.

“We enable buy-side firms to radically rethink their approach to interacting with the market, gain exposure to deal flow opportunities they have not been able to access before, and proactively drive liquidity in the market,” said Mark Badyra, chief executive officer of Appital.

“Appital is an innovative company which has the potential to solve inefficiencies in accessing significant volume in less liquid securities,” said Richard Worrell, head of EMEA equity trading at Janus Henderson. “What’s more, the platform gives the buy-side greater control and transparency over their bookbuilding process.”

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