Miami-based YieldX is bringing fixed income trading from Wall Street to Main Street

Globally, the fixed income market (think securities such as municipal, treasury, and corporate bonds) is a $200 trillion industry. Yet investing in fixed income assets isn’t as easy as trading equities like stocks for everyday consumers.

One Miami-based FinTech firm is trying to change that by using technology to enable consumers to access the fixed income market.

Adam Green, the co-founder and CEO of YieldX, told Refresh Miami that he is on a mission to “democratize access to the largest asset class in the world.” Green said his years working in top Wall Street financial firms such as Bear Stearns and Citadel opened his eyes to the role that technology can play in financial markets. 

The problem? The deck has been stacked in the big funds’ favor. These multinational banks have unlimited resources at their disposal to use technology to inform their investment strategy. The situation has improved now for equities, with the rise of trading platforms like Robinhood. But Green and his co-founder, Steve Gross, identified a market opportunity in the fixed income space.

Green explained that YieldX’s business model is B2B2C, whereby their platforms and products are sold to large consumer-facing organizations. He said that the YieldX team constantly thinks about “how [they] can arm [their] clients, which are the institutions, with technology and a user experience that will resonate with the consumer.”

YieldX’s business can be divided into three parts. First is YieldX Hub, a SaaS platform that acts as a graphical representation of the startup’s API in a single, streamlined platform. Second is their API itself, which enables institutions to build their own fixed income platforms by leveraging YieldX’s proprietary data. Third are products that YieldX offers as whitelabel platforms. For example, their ‘income portfolios as a service’ platform InPaaS lets users input their target return, and YieldX tells them the fixed-income assets they can buy to obtain that desired yield.

Since setting up shop in 2019, YieldX has raised $19 milion in funding. The company has always been based in Miami. 

Green decided to move to South Florida in 2017, initially attracted by the work-life balance: “It just made sense for me and my family to explore something that was more aligned with what we wanted for our lives and for raising children.”

But once he got settled, he was “completely shocked” by the “really quickly evolving tech scene,” particularly in the financial services space, which he called “a hidden gem.” He continued: “There is an incredible ecosystem from banking to wealth management to family offices, and all the service industries around that to help facilitate that ecosystem.”

Fast forward to starting a business here, and Miami continues to deliver. “I’ve been very pleasantly surprised at how quickly that talent pool has grown,” he said. He also highlighted Miami’s Mayor Suarez and Congressman Ted Detuch as two prominent political figures that are working to make South Florida an attractive destination for technologists. 

YieldX currently has 50 employees, with plans to expand to 75 by next year. In their Miami office, the company is hiring primarily for quantum modeling, engineering, and investment advice roles.

Photo at top of post: YieldX co-founders Adam Green (CEO), right, and Steve Gross (president).  

READ MORE ON REFRESH: Why South Florida is becoming a hotbed for fintech

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Riley Kaminer