BEE4 Selects Connamara Technologies’ EP3 to Connect Emerging Firms with Forward-Thinking Investors

May 24th, 2023 – Austin, TX – BEE4 is pleased to announce that it has chosen Connamara Technologies as the technology provider for its exchange platform that connects emerging businesses with investors. BEE4 is leveraging Connamara Technologies’ EP3™ exchange platform to create a scalable stock market in Brazil.

BEE4 is Brazil’s first regulated tokenized stock market built for companies with annual revenues between R$10 million and R$300 million to trade shares within a secure, regulated environment. BEE4’s stock market platform combines its own blockchain technology with Connamara Technologies’ EP3 platform to offer capital and funding to new and emerging companies in Brazil.

According to BEE4’s CEO, Patricia Stille, the firm is passionate about giving investors access to new markets and innovative companies. “We chose Connamara Technologies because EP3 fits our model very well. The system is complete and flexible to meet new parameters, inherent in a new market where everything grows at an accelerated pace and needs to be ready to adapt to future realities with agility and security. At BEE4 we have several technology initiatives and the evolution of our systems requires a series of decisions over time. Among them, what makes sense to develop at home, what is core/strategic, and what solutions are offered by third parties and widely used by exchanges and organized markets around the world. To gain scale with robustness and explore BEE4’s innovative potential, partnership with leading providers, with robust and reliable solutions, is essential,” she said.

When asked why they choose to work with Connamara Technologies to build their exchange, the team at BEE4 stated there aren’t many vendors out there like Connamara Technologies. In particular, the team mentioned they liked that EP3 is scalable, flexible, and global, enabling BEE4 to build an exchange that is authorized by CVM, Brazil’s regulatory organization. EP3 is also one of the few secure exchange platforms that can incorporate BEE4’s own blockchain technology.

BEE4 joins an elite roster of companies that have worked with Connamara Technologies. Other firms that have chosen Connamara Technologies to build exchanges and matching engines include TeraExchange, American Financial Exchange (AFX), MaterialsXchange, and many other production and pre-production exchanges.

Connamara CEO and co-founder Jim Downs said, “We are excited to work with BEE4 on designing and building this stock exchange to service the Brazilian market. It’s a thrill to unite the blockchain technology BEE4 created with the scalability of EP3. The team at BEE4 has an ambitious mission to provide financial resources to emerging firms and we are happy to provide the technology infrastructure to help them offer this important service.”

About Connamara Technologies:

Connamara Technologies builds future-ready exchange platforms and order matching engines. It’s the company behind EP3, the advanced exchange platform and order matching engine incubated by Connamara Systems. Learn more: https://www.connamara.tech/company/

About BEE4:

BEE4 is the first secure, regulated stock market in Brazil listing companies with annual revenues between R$10 million and R$300 million. With the use of proprietary blockchain technology, BEE4 created a system that processes trades in a safe, transparent, and compliant manner. Learn more: https://bee4.com.br/quem-somos/

Contacts
Connamara Technologies
Randy Williams
[email protected]

Bee4
Fernanda Christina Verlangieri Caio
[email protected]

EP3’s Jobs API: A Game-Changer for Exchange Platform Software Operators

When it comes to choosing the right exchange platform software, it’s important to find a robust trade matching engine with an experience that’s both easy to use and easy to navigate. At Connamara, we understand the needs of exchange operators, which is why we developed the Jobs API to make your life easier.

The Cloud Tool Chaos Problem

Prior to the introduction of the Jobs API for the EP3 exchange platform, exchange operators were faced with the challenge of having to navigate multiple cloud vendor tools to keep track of various jobs on the platform. This created a disjointed experience that made it difficult to monitor the status of crucial back-office processes, including regulatory reports and backups.

Without a centralized view of these processes, exchange operators had to spend valuable time switching between various interfaces and tools, making it difficult to quickly troubleshoot issues and gain insights into their system.

Introducing the Jobs API

As part of our commitment to making our EP3 trade matching engine and exchange platform software as user-friendly as possible, we’ve introduced a new API that simplifies and streamlines processes, while providing exchange operators fine-grained visibility into the platform.

With the addition of the Jobs API, exchange operators can now view the status of all jobs on the platform, including regulatory reports, backups, and other timed back-office processes — all within the admin user interface. Whether it’s grabbing logs, troubleshooting the environment, or getting insights into your system — you can do it all without leaving the Admin interface.

Simplifying your Tool Kit

Rather than relying on an entire kit of tools, you can view the status of scheduled tasks in one place. This feature enables users to see if jobs are running or if they failed and run actions on them. For example, you can effortlessly schedule all necessary regulatory reports to automatically run on your schedule.

Another useful feature of the Jobs API is the ability to extract logs. If a software component is not communicating correctly with third parties, you can view the communication and diagnose/resolve problems. Users can also manually run a job for a specific date. For example, if a regulatory report failed to run, you can rerun it and for a specific date.

Seamless Integration, Exceptional Experience

Our leading-edge tools are designed to provide users with unparalleled visibility and control over their exchange platform, eliminating the need for juggling multiple cloud tools. With our state-of-the-art APIs, all the essential tools are consolidated in one convenient location, allowing you to effortlessly monitor the status of various components and take prompt action whenever required.

This approach to exchange platform management offers a streamlined and user-friendly experience, making EP3 the ultimate choice for anyone seeking to optimize their exchange platform management. As we continue to improve and build on the Jobs API’s functionality, you can look forward to more features and capabilities that will further simplify and streamline your work.

Looking to launch a new exchange or upgrade your existing exchange? Contact us to see how you can leverage EP3.

Building Better Exchanges: How Our Discovery Process Sets the Stage for Success

As the world of financial technology evolves at a rapid pace, finding the right order matching technology to power your exchange can make all the difference. But it’s not just about the exchange platform and matching engine software. It’s just as important to choose a technology partner who will take a holistic perspective to understand your unique requirements while providing expert guidance throughout the process.

The Importance of a Thorough Discovery Process

You have unique requirements and it’s our goal to gain a high-level understanding of those during the qualification stage to determine if our order book matching engine software and exchange platform is a good fit. However, it’s during the Discovery phase that we can really dive deep into understanding your architecture, operations, and timeline as you plan the path to your first trade using EP3.

Our experience has shown that taking the time to conduct a thorough Discovery process provides a firm foundation that drives a smooth customer journey for you and your team. During this phase, Connamara works together with its customer to define the technical requirements and apply the processes that will produce a robust implementation. If your business needs more than what EP3 currently supports, Connamara will estimate the costs, resources, and timeline required to address these gaps and provide you with a detailed plan for moving forward.

The Detailed Discovery Report

The comprehensive Discovery report provides you with the information you need to make informed decisions about how to move forward — whether it’s to help raise funding for the project,  adjust your product roadmap, or to guide resource allocation.

As part of Discovery, customers receive a detailed list of functionalities required from the existing EP3 features, a plan for extending EP3 to cover any feature gaps; including time and cost estimates, hosting analysis and deployment architecture recommendations, a disaster recovery plan, an implementation roadmap, and a detailed proposal for EP3 license and production support.

Connamara will also provide diagrams with recommendations, including component architecture, trading schedules, the lifecycle of each trade, settlement states, API sequences, message flows, and disaster recovery objectives. Ultimately, our goal is to ensure that you have a clear understanding of the project and partnership going forward.

Guidance Every Step of the Way

Building an exchange is a complex undertaking that requires a partner with a proven track record of success. It’s crucial to choose a team of engineers with extensive experience working with exchanges of all sizes, who can demonstrate a deep understanding of the challenges you face. Equally important is the ability to provide expert guidance throughout the entire process, from the first interaction through your first trade. Keep this in mind when vetting potential exchange technology partners so you have the support and expertise you need to ensure a fair and orderly market.

Contact us today to discuss our Discovery and how your exchange may benefit from the process.

The Exchange Ecosystem: Understanding the Complexities Behind a Simple Transaction

In today’s global economy, exchanges play a crucial role in facilitating economic transactions between individuals, businesses, and governments. But the exchange ecosystem is far more complex than you might realize.

While the exchange is responsible for order matching, reporting data, and facilitating the trade, it’s just one part of the larger exchange ecosystem. There are many other moving parts — including systems, entities, and people — working behind the scenes to ensure a seamless transaction at every step.

Three Core Components of the Exchange Ecosystem

The exchange ecosystem is made up of three primary components: the exchange, distribution, and clearing.

The exchange is the heart of the ecosystem. It has several essential functions, including the order matching engine, which matches buyers and sellers based on the price and time of their transactions. The exchange must also manage the trading schedule and generate reports for both internal and regulatory purposes. Maintaining a fair and orderly market for all participants is the mandate of any exchange. To fulfill this mandate, the exchange must reliably stay open, surveil for bad actors, and monitor the health of the platform.

As part of the exchange ecosystem, distribution is a critical function that allows investors access to the market. This network often involves brokers or other intermediaries who connect their systems to the exchange to ensure that the investor’s transactions are securely routed to the exchange. They perform pre-trade and post-trade risk management on customer accounts to manage financial risk.

In addition to the exchange and distribution, trade clearing and settlement is another critical component of an exchange’s infrastructure. Clearing houses assume the counter-party risk by becoming the buyer to every seller and the seller to every buyer on the exchange.  They play a crucial role in settling transactions, ensuring that buyers receive their assets and sellers receive their payments. They also act as a safety net in case of any clearing member defaults, using the clearing member clearing fund to backstop any losses.

The Exchange Ecosystem in Action

To understand the exchange ecosystem, let’s take a stock exchange as an example. For instance, Customer A wants to buy 100 shares of Apple at a price of $150 per share and Customer B wants to sell 100 shares of Apple at the same price. They would log on to their account at their broker, or instruct their broker, to enter their respective orders to buy and sell. These orders would then be sent electronically to the exchange where the orders would be placed into a Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) for the shares of Apple.

Once both orders are in the CLOB, the buy and sell orders are matched using order-matching technology. A report of the trade is then sent to the broker systems, which are then relayed to the customers and to a clearinghouse for settlement.

From the market participants’ perspective, this is a simple process automated by the exchange’s infrastructure technologies that allow these different parts of the ecosystem to seamlessly integrate.

Ensuring the Security of User Assets and Transactions

Security is a top priority in the exchange ecosystem. Regulated exchanges and platforms, like EP3TM, have put strong measures in place to protect customer assets and transactions. Regulatory agencies are the first line of defense and provide a framework that all participants must follow. These agencies audit the activities of those involved to ensure they comply with regulations.

Additionally, brokerage firms must insure customer accounts to protect them in case of losses. Clearinghouses also require clearing members to contribute to a clearing fund to provide a backup in case any brokerage firms fail. All these precautions work together to create a secure environment for everyone involved in the exchange ecosystem.

While regulators are certainly a component of exchanges in regulated markets, they can vary greatly by jurisdiction and asset type. In unregulated markets, there are fewer of these regulatory controls, which allows for innovation in exchange technology, yet can also open up the exchange operator and customers to increased risk if not managed properly with the right technology.

Exchanges are complicated. EP3™ makes it easy.

Connamara’s future-ready exchange platform​, EP3, brings order to the chaos of the exchange ecosystem, providing a streamlined and efficient way for businesses and organizations to host their own exchange. From order matching technology, pre-trade risk checks, alternative market mechanisms, market surveillance, operational monitoring, and an easy-to-use exchange administration interface, we’ve combined all the necessary functionality into a configurable deployment tailored to your organization’s needs.

The use case described in this post is for a traditional exchange ecosystem. We are seeing exchanges being started in non-regulated spaces that combine all three functions in the exchange ecosystem. EP3 is equally suited for the non-traditional, non-regulated use case, and allows those exchanges to scale as their market evolves.

Looking to launch a new exchange or upgrade your existing exchange? Contact us to see how you can leverage EP3.