Cryptocurrency and digital asset exchange Seed CX Ltd. Wednesday said it has raised $15 million in new funding to expand its physical trading infrastructure, broaden its network of institutional trading groups and hire more people.

The Series B round was led by Bain Capital Ventures and OKCoin and included previous investors.

Founded in 2015, Chicago-based Seed CX pitches itself as “the institutional platform for trading digital assets” by catering to institutional investors and professional traders with a platform that is claimed to offer the “technology they need to confidently add cryptocurrencies to their portfolios and investment strategies.”

The company offers a trading desk that offers a diverse crypto and fiat product suite along with the ability to integrate with popular institutional order management systems. In addition, Seed CX offers risk management and operations functionality that is designed to protect market participants via a regime of trade surveillance, segregated trader accounts, audit trails and circuit breakers.

Ceed CX also offers settlement and custody services via its settlement engine, Zero Hash that provides users physical settlement for a range of fiat and digital assets, as well as custody through its proprietary Digital Asset Vault.

“The growth of digital assets as an asset class will be based on the adoption of institutional investors and professional traders, who require a trading experience that is on par with that of other instruments, such as equities and commodities,” Edward Woodford, Seed CX’s co-founder and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Discussing one of the hurdles for broader cryptocurrency support from institutional investors, Salil Deshpande, managing director at Bain, noted that “institutions are seeking regulated, secure and reliable crypto venues with diverse products that allow them to earn strong returns.”

Including the new funding, Ceed CX has raised $25.1 million to date. Previous investors include 500 Startups, iAngels, FinTech Sandbox, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, Edward Lando, Struck Capital, Divergence Digital Currency, Harlem Capital Partners and Tom Sosnoff.

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