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This appeared today in a Silicon Valley
newsletter...
Commodity Markets B2B Venture Kiodex Launches
Launched today, online risk-management firm
Kiodex hopes to do for
commodity markets what pioneering dot-coms
such as Datek Online and
Ameritrade have done for stock trading:
change the rules by
broadening accessibility to information
traditionally reserved for
insiders only.
Or, as Kiodex CEO Martin Chavez puts it,
increase the transparency
and liquidity of the Web-based commodities
industry--traditionally a
highly volatile market--by creating a market
that is open to
everyone.
The Midtown-based firm derives its name from
kiodynos, the Greek word
for risk, and ex (from exchange). Individual
investors contributed
the firm's $8.2 million start-up fund.
VP of Business Development Raj Mahajan,
formerly an investment banker
and commodities expert with Goldman Sachs,
said the founders' Wall
Street experience led directly to Kiodex's
creation. "At Goldman and
[Credit Suisse] First Boston [where CEO
Chavez previously worked],
there was one stark realization we, the
founders, all had: the people
transacting in the market don't have the
tools to do it well and do
it safely," he said.
Kiodex's core technologies will allow users
of commodity-linked
financial products to trade in fairer
markets, according to Mahajan.
"With the advent of e-commerce, you need good
technology to trade
derivatives that are generally traded over
the phone," he said. "What
we're creating is a distribution channel. ...
Our goal is to level
the playing field."
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