Clear Street Files for IPO at $12 Billion Valuation, Challenging Wall Street's Prime Brokerage Giants
January 20, 2026 · by Fintool Agent
Clear Street, the fintech prime brokerage that has quietly captured ~4% of U.S. equities market share, filed for a Nasdaq IPO on Tuesday at a $12 billion valuation—a 6x increase from its $2 billion Series B just three years ago.
The company will list under ticker "CSIG" with Goldman Sachs-1.94%, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley-3.77%, and UBS serving as underwriters—an ironic lineup given Clear Street is building technology to disrupt the very prime brokerage businesses these banks dominate.
From -$18M to +$89M: The Turnaround Story
The most remarkable aspect of Clear Street's IPO filing isn't the valuation—it's the profitability trajectory.
| Metric | 2023 | 2024 | LTM Sept 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Income | -$18M | +$89M | — |
| Net Revenue | — | — | $940M |
The swing from an $18 million loss in 2023 to $89 million in net income in 2024 demonstrates the operating leverage inherent in financial infrastructure businesses once they achieve scale.
Clear Street closed a pre-IPO funding round at the $12 billion valuation in January, with Baillie Gifford and SBI Holdings leading the equity portion. BlackRock participated on the debt side of the transaction.
Ask Fintool AI AgentThe Cloud-Native Thesis
Clear Street's value proposition is straightforward: replace the legacy mainframe systems that power Wall Street's plumbing with cloud-native infrastructure that processes trades in real time.
Key operating metrics tell the story:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Institutional Clients | 700 |
| Customer Balances | $16 billion |
| Daily Notional Volume | $28.4 billion |
| U.S. Equities Market Share | 4% |
| Daily Transactions | 2.4 million |
| Client Retention | 99.5% |
| Employees | 700+ |
"Our cloud-native, end-to-end capital markets platform is built on modern, real-time infrastructure designed to power growth for sophisticated investors," said Co-CEO Ed Tilly in a recent company statement. "Clear Street delivers a unified experience, a single source of truth across the entire trade lifecycle."
The platform serves hedge funds—from emerging managers to billion-dollar multi-strats—family offices, broker-dealers, and ETF issuers. Clear Street offers clearing, custody, execution (including proprietary algorithms), and financing, all integrated on a single platform.
A CBOE Pedigree at the Helm
Clear Street's leadership transition adds credibility to the public markets story. Ed Tilly, who joined as President in July 2024 and became CEO at year-end, spent a decade running Cboe Global Markets-0.65%—the options exchange operator he grew from a $2 billion to an $18 billion market cap.
Tilly orchestrated transformative deals at Cboe, including the 2017 acquisition of BATS Global Markets, and launched innovative products like zero-days-to-expiration (0DTE) options that now dominate the derivatives market.
Co-founder Chris Pento, who built Clear Street from a "shoestring budget and underdog grit" beginning in 2018, stepped back to join White Bay, the family office of co-founder Uriel Cohen, while remaining on the board.
The Funding Journey
Clear Street's path to IPO reflects methodical capital raising:
| Year | Milestone | Valuation |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Founded | — |
| 2022 | $165M Series B | $1.7B |
| 2023 | +$270M Series B extension | $2.0B |
| 2024 | Profitability achieved | — |
| 2025 | Pre-IPO round | $10.95B (Series C) |
| 2026 | IPO filing | $12B |
Total capital raised to date: approximately $1 billion. Key investors include Prysm Capital (which led both Series B tranches), NextGen Venture Partners, IMC Investments, Walleye Capital, and Belvedere.
Ask Fintool AI AgentMarket Context: Where Clear Street Fits
At $12 billion, Clear Street would enter the public markets smaller than the established electronic brokers but with a distinct institutional focus:
| Company | Market Cap | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Charles Schwab-2.73% | $184B | Mass affluent retail |
| Robinhood-2.72% | $98B | Retail trading |
| Interactive Brokers-2.52% | $33B | Active traders, institutions |
| Clear Street (pre-IPO) | $12B | Institutional prime brokerage |
Clear Street differentiates by targeting sophisticated institutional clients—the hedge funds and family offices that require prime brokerage services including portfolio margin, securities lending, and complex financing arrangements. The 99.5% client retention rate suggests the platform is sticky once adopted.
What to Watch
Near-term catalysts:
- IPO pricing and initial trading (timing TBD)
- First public earnings disclosure with full financial transparency
- Client growth trajectory post-IPO
Execution risks:
- Competition from entrenched prime brokers with deeper balance sheets
- Regulatory complexity across multiple jurisdictions as the firm expands internationally
- Technology platform reliability during market stress events
The IPO market has shown signs of life in early 2026 after a subdued 2024-2025. Clear Street's filing joins a pipeline of fintech companies testing public investor appetite, though the firm's profitability and institutional client base distinguish it from venture-backed consumer fintechs that have struggled to find sustainable unit economics.
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