Lightyear Capital Names Former Lava Trading CEO as Senior Advisor

Lightyear Capital, a New York-based private equity firm focused on financial services investing, has named Richard Korhammer as senior advisor. Korhammer is co-founder and former chairman/CEO of Lava Trading.

PRESS RELEASE

NEW YORK, NY (July 25, 2013) – On behalf of its affiliated funds, Lightyear Capital LLC (“Lightyear”), a New York-based private equity firm focused on financial services investing, has recently appointed Richard Korhammer, co-founder and former Chairman and CEO of Lava Trading Inc., as Senior Advisor. Mr. Korhammer will draw upon his extensive background in financial technology to help identify and evaluate financial technology and capital markets investment opportunities for Lightyear.
In 1999, Mr. Korhammer co-founded Lava, an innovative equities and foreign exchange direct market access and order management system provider. As CEO, Mr. Korhammer successfully guided Lava from its inception through Lava’s acquisition by Citigroup in 2004. After the purchase, Mr. Korhammer remained at Citigroup as the Head of Global Equities Electronic Execution. Mr. Korhammer currently serves as the Chairman of Yieldbroker, a leading electronic marketplace for trading of debt securities and derivatives in Australia and New Zealand, which is owned by a consortium of global debt market participants. He graduated from Princeton University with a dual BSE degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and earned a Certificate in Operations Research from the Civil Engineering Department.
“Richard’s extensive background in financial technology and capital markets and his management and strategic leadership experience will be an asset to our firm as we develop new investment opportunities in the financial technology sector,” said Donald B. Marron, Chairman of Lightyear.
“We are delighted to welcome Richard to Lightyear,” said Mark Vassallo, Managing Partner of Lightyear Capital. “He brings invaluable entrepreneurial experience along with extensive knowledge of capital markets structure across asset classes which we are confident will enhance our value proposition and investment strategy.”
Notably, Mr. Korhammer assisted Lightyear in evaluating its recent investment in REDI, a leading broker-neutral technology platform for global trading in equities and derivatives. Lightyear invested in REDI as the only private equity participant in a consortium of investors including BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citadel and Goldman Sachs. Lightyear is an active investor in the financial technology sector and has completed six principal investments and eight follow-on investments in the sector. In addition to REDI, Lightyear currently has two portfolio companies in the financial technology sector. Alegeus Technologies, formerly the Healthcare Benefit Solutions business of Fidelity National Information Services, is the leading provider of benefit administration and payment processing technology in the consumer directed healthcare market. Higher One Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: ONE) is a provider of electronic refund management services and other financial services to universities and their students in the United States.
Mr. Korhammer added, “Lightyear has a strong industry reputation along with a talented and knowledgeable team. I’m very much looking forward to bringing my experience and background to help identify and evaluate financial technology and capital markets investment opportunities.”
About Lightyear Capital LLC
Lightyear Capital is a leading private equity firm making primarily control investments in North America-based, middle-market financial services companies. Based in New York, Lightyear, through its three affiliated private equity funds, has raised over $2.5 billion of capital and has completed investments across the financial services spectrum, including asset management, banks, brokerage, financial technology, insurance, and specialty finance. Lightyear brings unique strengths and discipline to its investment process, as well as operating, transaction, and strategic management experience, along with significant contacts and resources beyond capital. The senior team of professionals averages over 25 years of financial services-related experience and includes Chris Casciato, Michael Doppelt, Stewart Gross, Thierry Ho, Donald Marron, and Mark Vassallo.