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French startup Lise has obtained authorization to operate a DLT-based market infrastructure under the EU’s Pilot Regime — the European framework allowing the trading and settlement of tokenized securities under direct supervision. The license allows Lise to act as both a trading venue and a central securities depository, enabling atomic cash settlement without relying on a clearing house.
Why it matters
The approval places Lise among only a handful of firms cleared to operate under the regime, alongside 21X, CSD Prague, Axiology DLT, and 360X. But while most peers focus on large institutional markets such as tokenized bonds, funds, and structured products, Lise targets private companies and SMEs. Its goal is to open public capital markets to smaller companies that today depend mostly on private equity or bank loans.
Bridging the equity gap
At the heart of that strategy is the relationship with banks. Lise’s platform is designed to help lenders finance their SME clients by combining equity and debt: a company can raise fresh capital through a small-scale IPO on Lise, then use that equity to secure additional bank financing.
“The issuer no longer needs to deal with multiple intermediaries; everything goes through us,” explains Mark Kepeneghian, founder and CEO of Lise. “This model reduces entry costs for SMEs by a factor of four to five compared to today’s system.”
How it works
To make the process manageable for small firms, Lise brings every step of an IPO (due diligence, legal checks, audit, placement banking, and valuation) into a single digital workflow.
“We’re already in discussions with around a hundred SMEs, some more advanced than others, with a first listing targeted for early 2026,” Mark Kepeneghian adds.
Unlike peers relying on stablecoins, Lise uses commercial bank money issued by its partner bank through a permissioned, EVM-compatible Hyperledger Besu network.
“Once verified, we automatically create a wallet on our blockchain and an IBAN in your name, issued via our partner Memo Bank,” says Kepeneghian. “The tokenized money represents a bank deposit held within that credit institution, legally protected euros covered by deposit insurance, unlike stablecoins.”
Lise has raised €4.2 million in Series A funding, with Bpifrance, BNP Paribas, and CACEIS (Crédit Agricole) investing directly from their balance sheets.
The first listings are expected in 2026, followed by gradual integration with brokers and custodians so investors can access Lise-listed shares directly through their usual banking interfaces.
L'avis de Blockstories
Lise is addressing a real need: Europe’s SMEs lack access to equity financing, and building new market infrastructure to fix that makes sense. But technology alone won’t create liquidity. You can put SME shares on a blockchain, yet liquidity depends on information, not code, and most private companies cannot or are not willing to publish the continuous, audited data public markets require.
If you push small caps into a 24/7 exchange model, volatility will run wild, and employees watching their company’s price jump 30% overnight is not healthy for more traditional companies. These firms value privacy and stability more than speculative liquidity.
From my perspective, DLT is better suited for SME debt markets, where interest and risk can be derived from available data and valuation doesn’t depend on constant disclosure. Tokenization can make those assets easier to finance and trade. But for SME equity, without solving the information problem, all you create is a new venue for price swings, not a liquid market.
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