PrimaryBid appoints Fiona Richards as chief operating officer

PrimaryBid has appointed Fiona Richards as its new chief operating officer (COO).

Richards joins the listings platform from Rowan Dartington, the discretionary investment arm of St James’s Place, where she was both COO and board director.

She brings more than 25 years of regulated industry experience across consulting and investment banking to the role, having worked at HSBC, UBS, Accenture and Deutsche Bank. 

“[Richards] is an industry veteran, bringing highly relevant experience at an exciting time in our company’s growth,” PrimaryBid co-founder and CEO Anand Sambasivan said.

“Recent regulatory developments around retail investors have only strengthened the need for technology-driven improvements to the capital markets infrastructure, and Fiona’s addition to our hugely experienced team means we can hit the ground running in 2023.”

PrimaryBid says it has strengthened its team across a number of areas over the last six months, including information security, data science, distribution partnerships, product and compliance

Richards will join the executive team in London and be responsible for global business operations and strategic planning.

“I have joined a firm with a very exciting future,” Richards said.

“PrimaryBid's track record to this point speaks for itself and I look forward to supporting the continued build-out of the company as we expand geographically and across a deeper product set."

Founded in 2016, the fintech aims to democratise access to IPOs and new placings for retail investors.

Last February, it raised $190m from investors including SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 and said it would use the funds to expand across Europe.

In October it went on to launch its API-based Connect platform, enabling investment platforms, brokers, fintechs and wealth managers to offer PrimaryBid's IPOs, placings and bonds.