Citadel Securities Announces $1.15 Billion Investment from Sequoia and Paradigm

Investment from Leading Venture Capital Firms Values Citadel Securities at Approximately $22 Billion

Firm Will Continue to Leverage its Superior Technology to Accelerate Global Growth Across Products, Markets and Regions

CHICAGO, January 11, 2022 – Citadel Securities, a leading global market maker, announced today that Sequoia and Paradigm have made a $1.15 billion minority investment in the firm. Sequoia led the round, with the investment coming from Sequoia Heritage, Sequoia Capital Global Equities and the Global Growth Fund. Sequoia Partner Alfred Lin will join the Citadel Securities Board of Directors.

Citadel Securities provides both institutional and retail investors with the liquidity they need to execute transactions across a broad array of equity and fixed income products. The firm has been at the forefront of the modernization of markets and market structures, which has delivered enormous benefits to investors globally. Its institutional business serves more than 1,600 clients, including many of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds and central banks.

“The talent of our extraordinary market making team combined with our powerful risk management techniques have transformed the client experience in the many markets we serve,” said Citadel Securities Chairman Ken Griffin. “In Sequoia and Paradigm, we have partners that appreciate how the strength of our market expertise, advanced predictive analytics and superlative software engineering can redefine an industry. We look forward to their partnership and to welcoming Alfred to our Board as Citadel Securities accelerates its growth.”

“Many companies that have transformed the world have achieved their highest ambitions with Sequoia as their partner,” said Citadel Securities CEO Peng Zhao. “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. 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 has carved out a unique place in the financial markets through its ability to absorb and price risk using techniques and capabilities from far outside the traditional world of Wall Street,” said Sequoia Partner Alfred Lin. “Citadel Securities’ commitment to solving for the needs of its clients through advanced analytics and technology has helped make markets more accessible for millions of people. We are proud to partner with Citadel Securities in its mission of being the leading market maker in existing and emerging asset classes around the world. Many of our most successful investments have been in companies that share the client-centric ethos that defines Citadel Securities.”

“Citadel Securities has developed software and algorithms that have driven substantial improvement to market structures for the benefit of institutional and retail investors everywhere,” said Matt Huang, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Paradigm. “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.”

About Citadel Securities

Citadel Securities is a leading global market maker, delivering a broad array of equity and fixed income products to central banks, financial institutions, government agencies, corporations, insurers and sovereign wealth funds. Citadel Securities is active in more than 50 countries with 12 offices across North America, EMEA and APAC. The firm provides more than 1,600 global clients with superior trading experiences to meet their liquidity needs in all market conditions. For more information, visit www.CitadelSecurities.com.

About Sequoia Capital

Sequoia helps daring founders build legendary companies from idea to IPO and beyond. We aim to be the first true believers in tomorrow’s most valuable and enduring businesses. We partner with a few outliers each year and go all-in, providing them with the hands-on help required at every stage of the company building journey. Our expertise comes from 50 years of working with legendary founders like Steve Jobs, Larry Page, Jan Koum, Adi Tatarko, Brian Chesky, Anne Wojcicki, Eric Yuan, Julia Hartz, and Patrick Collison. In aggregate, Sequoia-backed companies account for more than 25% of NASDAQ’s total value. Since our inception, the vast majority of the money we invest has been on behalf of nonprofits and schools like the Ford Foundation, Mayo Clinic and MIT, which means most of the returns we generate benefit these great causes.

About Paradigm

Paradigm is an investment firm focused on supporting the great crypto/Web3 companies and protocols of tomorrow. Our approach is flexible, long-term, multi-stage, and global. We often get involved at the earliest stages of formation and support our portfolio with additional capital over time. Our team takes a deeply hands-on approach to help projects reach their full potential, from the technical to the operational. For more information, visit paradigm.xyz.