Brian Bejile is the Chief Executive Officer of Octaura, where he brings two decades of senior trading positions and leadership experience to the role. Prior to founding Octaura, Brian was most recently at Citi as Managing Director and Global Head of CLO Issuer Management, a combined offering across syndicated loan trading, financing and securitization. Before that, he ran the Loan Portfolio Trading and Global CLO trading desks. He was formally recognized for having the number-one CLO trading desk by volume for multiple years in a row.

Driven by his passion for simplifying and evolving markets, Brian sought the backing of Citi to bring his idea of an independent execution, data and analytics platform for fixed income markets to life. Brian’s collaborative spirit led him to join forces with several seasoned industry participants and strategic investors to address what he saw as the greatest challenges in Syndicated Loans and Structured Credit.

Throughout his career, Brian has observed that diversity in all its facets has been a key ingredient to all his successful innovations. He is a champion for the development, attraction, and retention of Black and other underrepresented groups in the financial services industry, having led multiple key diversity initiatives while at Citi. Brian is currently the Board Treasurer for Education Matters Africa Foundation, a non-profit organization providing education access to highly talented, underprivileged African youth. Brian is a graduate of Haverford College where he double majored in computer science and economics. He lives in New York City along with his wife and their three children.

Tell us about your background and the experiences that have shaped your career.

My career began on the trading desk at Citi, where I experienced firsthand the manual and inefficient process to trade Collateralized Loan Obligations (CLOs) and syndicated loans at the time. That experience, coupled with my team’s work building trading functionality on CitiVelocity, which automates customer bid collections on CLO Bids Wanted in Competition (BWICs), demonstrated how technology could fundamentally transform these markets.

My work at Citi taught me both a respect for legacy workflows and conviction that modernization could unlock new levels of transparency, liquidity, and efficiency for a market that desperately needed it. These dual perspectives, practitioner and innovator, continue to guide Octaura’s approach as we work to enhance – rather than replace – legacy workflows that participants already trust and unlock potential in this trillion-plus dollar market.

How did your time as a trader influence the idea for Octaura?

My time as a trader shaped Octaura’s DNA. I saw how much time is wasted on repetitive, manual tasks – spreadsheets, long phone calls and endless emails to chase down bid information. I began working on automation alternatives to streamline those processes and free up time so I could focus on higher value strategy (while spending a little less time in the office…).

I knew the problem wasn’t ours alone, so I reached out to other founding investors –Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and Moody’s Analytics – who shared the same conviction and said, “if you create a multi-dealer platform, we will come.” That consortium turned into “Project Octopus,” which morphed into Octaura. We officially launched Octaura in 2022 to transform the market and deliver the liquidity, transparency, and efficiency I wished I had access to as a trader.

What are Octaura’s core products and capabilities, and what makes it unique?

Octaura is the first electronic trading platform designed for both syndicated loans and CLOs, two markets that are interconnected but have historically lacked automation and transparency. Octaura launched its first platform delivering trading protocols, real-time data and analytics for syndicated loans in 2023. Our new CLO platform builds on that foundation by introducing real-time execution, full bid transparency, and analytics that provide greater visibility to the CLO market.

Additionally, support from Octaura’s trusted data providers strengthens the platform’s data engines, which in turn create better pricing and liquidity tools. With 27 dealers and 160 buy-side firms already onboarded, Octaura helps unlock access to more liquidity and meaningful market growth as adoption scales.

You recently announced an impressive a multi-million-dollar funding round. What else is on the horizon?

Octaura’s focus is on improving efficiency today, while continuing to lay the groundwork for meaningful transformation and long-term market growth.. Our proven protocols, data offerings, and platforms, lay the foundation for a seamless trading ecosystem that addresses efficiency and transparency issues inherent to asset classes in the broader loan market. As we look forward, we hope to continue driving efficiencies for other opaque asset classes that have been left behind in the technology ecosystem.

What recent milestones or achievements are you most proud of?

I’m most proud of the adoption momentum we’ve built. Within a short time, Octaura has achieved a nearly 6% market share of all leveraged loans traded in the secondary market

We recently launched the CLO platform with 50 buy-side firms and a dozen dealers, with beta phase feedback that has been especially validating. Clients are excited about BWIC execution times dropping from 90 minutes to under 30 in some cases, and real-time bid features that are transforming the historically clunky process. Here is some additional feedback we’re getting already:

Tom Majewski, Founder and Managing Partner at Eagle Point Credit Management, says it is “amazing to see the CLO secondary market come out of the Stone Age.” 1

Jake Caldwell, Head of US CLO Trading at Goldman Sachs, noted that the platform is already “significantly enhancing market efficiency and streamlining operations.” 1

And David Trepanier, Managing Director, Head of Global Credit Structured Products of Bank of America, said, “the launching of electronic trading of CLOs on Octaura is a watershed moment for the market” and that the platform “is addressing many of the CLO market inefficiencies that have plagued both buy side and sell side players for years”.1

The financial industry has traditionally been slow to embrace change, and Octaura is the first company really modernizing syndicated loan and CLO markets. How have you worked to shift perceptions in the industry and drive digital adoption?

We knew adoption couldn’t be forced and realized the best place to start with was workflows designed by actual users. We developed Octaura to enhance, not replace, legacy workflows as there is true power in client-led initiation. Having spent years on the trading desk, we focused on tackling the same challenges we used to complain about day in and day out. This approach fostered trust with our customer base and ensured we prioritized solving real pain points they face daily. By digitizing familiar processes like BWIC lists, but adding transparency, speed, and analytics, we showed participants immediate value without requiring them to change how to they trade.

What excites you most about Octaura’s future?

The secondary loan market desperately needs to evolve. It still trades at $200B annually, only a fraction of the $1.2T market size. Octaura provides infrastructure that matches the scale of this market. It’s rare to see a trillion-dollar market at an inflection point and we couldn’t be more excited to be at the forefront of shaping it.

What advice would you give to entrepreneurs looking to launch a fintech in today’s market?

Don’t chase perfection at the start. What matters most is testing, addressing feedback, and continuing to innovate. Each round will make your product stronger and deepen customer trust. You can’t change behavior overnight, but you can create lasting change in a complex market by learning and evolving.

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