Leaving a (sometimes) stable banking job to move into the crypto world can be a big risk. For former Morgan Stanley MD Kyle Downey, the risk appears to have just paid off. The cryptocurrency company he co-founded in 2021 was just acquired by fellow cryptocurrency company Talos.
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Mr. Downey spent 17 years at Morgan Stanley before founding Cloudwall, a fintech company that provides risk management systems for crypto portfolios. During his tenure at the bank, he led a team focused on automated risk trading.
Cloudwall has a presence in Singapore thanks to its co-founder, Jia Yng Wee, who also comes from a banking background. She left Nomura, where she was an executive director, to found the startup, but also spent six years as an operations director at Morgan Stanley while Mr. Downey worked there.
It's unclear how much profit each side will make from the deal. Mr. Downey declined to comment, and the purchase price was not disclosed. Dealroom.co estimates his Cloudwall is worth between $25 million and $38 million after the May 2022 funding round. Since then, the industry has been… eventful to say the least.
Downey, who has been CEO of Cloudwall, has not disclosed what his new role will be. He has previously been described as a “true believer” in cryptocurrencies, so it is expected that he will at least stick with the industry.
Still, some founders see a sale as a sign to take the next step. Goldman Sachs MD James Blackham moved into insurtech in 2016 and founded Buy Miles, which he sold in the summer for about $100 million. Instead of sticking with the business, he left to run quantitative engineering at Phoenix Group.
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