Capitolis Buys U.S. Platform to Expand Capital Marketplace

NEW YORK, NY – February 20, 2026 – In a significant move to deepen its footprint in the American financial landscape, fintech innovator Capitolis has announced its agreement to acquire the U.S. Secured Financing Platform from 20 Gates Management. The deal, expected to close in the coming weeks, marks a strategic expansion for Capitolis, enabling it to integrate a mature, 15-year-old operation into its flagship Capital Marketplace and extend its services into the vast U.S. secured financing sector.

The acquisition is poised to deliver a threefold benefit to Capitolis: adding a critical product offering for its U.S. clients, onboarding an established network of major financial institutions, and absorbing a team of veteran industry professionals. This transaction signals the company's ambitious push to become a central hub for capital efficiency across the globe.

A Strategic Entry into a Trillion-Dollar Market

Capitolis is stepping into one of the most vital and immense segments of the U.S. economy. The American secured financing market is a multi-trillion-dollar behemoth, with secured lending underpinning a substantial portion of the nation's GDP. This sector provides the essential liquidity that allows businesses to expand, manage working capital, and invest in growth. However, this critical market is not without its profound challenges, creating a fertile ground for technological disruption.

Financial institutions today are navigating a complex environment marked by rising interest rates, tightening credit standards, and intense regulatory scrutiny from bodies like the SEC and FINRA. Banks face squeezed margins and operational bottlenecks, struggling to compete with the speed and flexibility of emerging non-bank lenders and private credit funds. The demand for greater efficiency, faster loan origination, and more sophisticated capital management tools has never been higher.

By acquiring an established platform rather than building from scratch, Capitolis is making a calculated play to address these pain points directly. The move allows the company to bypass the lengthy development and trust-building phase, instead offering an immediate, market-tested solution to institutions seeking to optimize their balance sheets and unlock constrained capital in a challenging economic climate.

More Than Tech: Acquiring Trust and Talent

While Capitolis is known for its advanced technology, this acquisition underscores a strategy that values established relationships and human expertise as much as innovative code. The 20 Gates Management platform is not a nascent startup; it is a mature business with over 15 years of operational history, supported by what the press release describes as a "broad base of prominent investors and banks." This legacy provides an invaluable foundation of trust and market penetration.

The integration of 20 Gates' "established roster of major financial institutions" into the Capitolis network represents a significant acceleration of its client acquisition strategy. More importantly, the deal includes the transfer of seasoned team members, bringing deep domain expertise in the nuances of U.S. secured financing directly into the Capitolis fold.

“We have known 20 Gates Management for many years, have partnered with them, and are excited to bring their U.S. secured financing capabilities and veteran team members on board,” said Gil Mandelzis, CEO and Founder of Capitolis. “Our Capital Marketplace already offers secured financing solutions in Europe, and this acquisition extends those offerings to the U.S. market, where they are critical to our clients. In addition to that, we're gaining exceptional talent and established client relationships that will accelerate our growth and enhance our ability to serve the market with innovative solutions."

For 20 Gates Management, the transaction allows the firm to sharpen its focus on its core activities. “We've worked with and have known Capitolis for a long time and have great respect for their expertise and market leadership,” stated Hans Bald, CEO of 20 Gates Management. “We’re excited to see them expand into U.S. secured financing by bringing our offering into their marketplace. 20 Gates remains focused on its core Asset Management business, investing in private and revolving ABS for its clients.”

Building the Global Capital Marketplace

This acquisition is not an isolated event but a key piece in Capitolis' broader blueprint for creating a more efficient global financial ecosystem. The company has steadily built momentum, and this U.S. expansion logically complements its existing secured financing solutions in Europe, creating a more comprehensive, transatlantic offering for its global banking clients. The move exemplifies a deliberate strategy to identify and solve capital constraints in the world's largest financial centers.

This strategic expansion is further contextualized by a series of recent high-profile leadership appointments at the company, including Okan Pekin as President, Richard Schiffman as Chief Product Officer, and Amol Naik as Chief Operating Officer. This strengthening of its executive ranks signals a company gearing up for a new phase of significant growth and product diversification, armed with both fresh leadership and, now, a significant market acquisition.

Backed by a formidable list of venture capital firms and global banks—including Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, J.P. Morgan, Citi, and Morgan Stanley—Capitolis has positioned itself as a trusted partner for innovation within the traditionally cautious banking industry. Its stated mission is to create "safer and more vibrant financial markets" by using technology to connect institutions with diversified capital and investment opportunities.

As the integration process begins, the challenge for Capitolis will be to seamlessly merge the acquired platform's operations and culture into its own technology-driven ecosystem. Success will depend on leveraging the deep institutional knowledge of the incoming 20 Gates team while scaling the platform with Capitolis’ own advanced technological capabilities. If executed effectively, the synthesis of a proven, trusted platform with a cutting-edge fintech engine could provide a powerful new tool for U.S. financial institutions, ultimately helping to unlock billions in capital and drive greater efficiency across the market.