CME Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
CME Ventures is the corporate venture capital and strategic investment arm of CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace (operator of the CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX exchanges). Founded in 2014 and based in Chicago, the fund was built to look "the day after tomorrow" rather than the next quarter: it backs technologies that are too nascent for CME to build or acquire outright today, but that could reshape financial market structure within three to five years. The stated goal is dual-purpose — generate financial returns while giving CME Group an early, informed view into technologies (real-time payments, distributed ledgers, deep learning, precision data, next-generation computing, and security) that may eventually intersect with its core exchange, clearing, and data businesses.
Sector Focus
CME Ventures takes a generalist high-tech approach anchored in market structure and capital markets technology rather than a narrow fintech-only mandate. Priority areas include:
- Financial market infrastructure and trading technology
- Digital assets, blockchain, and distributed ledger technology
- AI, machine learning, and data analytics applied to markets
- Cybersecurity and behavioral-analytics security tooling
- Workflow and enterprise software that unlocks capital or operational efficiency across the trade lifecycle
- Emerging asset classes (e.g. agricultural/commodity trading platforms, quantum computing)
Stage Focus
CME Ventures invests from seed through growth stages (seed through Series D observed in its portfolio), with the bulk of activity concentrated in seed through Series B rounds. It behaves as a strategic minority investor rather than an institutional lead fund.
Check Size
Historical guidance from the firm put per-company checks in the $500K–$5M range; more recent portfolio construction suggests checks as large as $3M–$20M for later-stage or strategically important rounds. Actual check size appears to flex heavily with round size and strategic relevance to CME Group's exchange businesses.
Lead Tendency
CME Ventures predominantly participates in syndicated rounds alongside financial and strategic co-investors rather than leading. Recent examples: DV Trading led Eris Innovations' 2026 funding round with CME Ventures participating; Kaszek led Grão Direto's 2025 Series B with CME Ventures as one of several strategic participants (alongside Bradesco's venture arm and SLC Ventures).
Recent Activity
- May 2026: Participated in a new funding round for Eris Innovations (Eris Futures), tied to the June 2026 launch of Eris SOFR Swap Options and continued growth of the Eris SOFR complex. Round led by DV Trading with participation from DRW, BlackEdge Capital, Arb Trading Group, Chicago Trading Company, TransMarket Group, and CME Ventures.
- March 2025: Participated in a $15M Series B for Grão Direto, a Latin American digital grain-trading platform, led by Kaszek.
- November 2024: Invested in Synthesis Health, a healthcare information services company.
CME Ventures operates out of a single vehicle, Liquidity Ventures I, established in 2014; there is no public record of a formally announced follow-on fund, though the firm has continued deploying capital continuously since inception (32-58 investments cited across data providers, depending on how affiliated CME Group strategic deals are counted).
Portfolio Highlights
CME Ventures' portfolio spans two eras: an earlier wave of frontier-tech bets (deep learning, quantum computing, secure comms, distributed ledgers) and a more recent wave of capital-markets-adjacent fintech and data companies.
Notable current and past portfolio companies include Digital Asset, Axoni, OpenFin, OpenGamma, Symphony, SparkCognition, SandboxAQ, Dwolla, Ripple, Digital Currency Group, 1QBit, Eris Futures, BlockFills, Kemiex, Revelate, Synthesis Health, and Grão Direto.
Notable exits/outcomes: Nervana Systems (deep learning) was acquired by Intel in August 2016 for a reported ~$400M; Wickr (secure comms) was later acquired by Amazon Web Services; Fortscale (behavioral security analytics) was acquired by Cyberark's ecosystem via prior owners. Iguazio (data science platform) was also an early portfolio company that saw significant M&A activity in its category.
Team
- Josh Kravitt, Director, CME Ventures — works with internal CME Group stakeholders and the external fintech investment network to source and vet third-party partners and investment opportunities.
- Jennifer McKellar, Senior Director, CME Ventures — based in New York; senior deal team member for the fund.
Historically the fund was led by an Executive Director role (Rumi Morales, per earlier press coverage) reporting into CME's head of strategy and execution, with a five-member investment committee drawn from across CME Group's divisions — reflecting CME Ventures' structure as a corporate-governed strategic fund rather than a traditional GP-led partnership.
Decision Process
Corporate structure: investment decisions run through an internal investment committee spanning CME Group business units rather than a small partner group, which is typical for a corporate venture arm of this size and mandate.
Founder Preferences
CME Ventures gravitates toward technical teams building infrastructure-level or market-structure-adjacent technology — distributed ledgers, real-time payments rails, AI/ML for markets and analytics, and next-generation trading/clearing infrastructure — where CME Group's exchange, clearing, and data expertise can add strategic value beyond capital.
Geographic Focus
Primarily United States (Chicago HQ, New York deal presence), with portfolio reach extending to Canada, Europe, Israel, and Latin America (e.g. Grão Direto in Brazil).