Our Bond, Inc. (OBAI)

Our Bond, Inc. operates in fixed-income market infrastructure — the market data, trading platforms, and analytics tools that enable bond market participants to price, trade, and manage bond portfolios. The company sits between institutional investors (pension funds, asset managers, insurance companies), primary dealers and brokers, and the trading venues where bonds change hands. It does not itself issue bonds, does not trade them for its own account, and does not underwrite them. Instead, it provides digital tools and services that intermediate those activities.

Fixed-income markets are large, fragmented, and less transparent than equity markets. Unlike stocks, which trade on centralized exchanges with real-time price quotes visible to all market participants, bonds are largely traded over the counter (OTC) — in bilateral negotiations between dealers and their clients, with pricing often opaque and execution often slow. This fragmentation and opacity create opportunities for fintech platforms that can aggregate data, standardize pricing, and streamline execution.

To understand Our Bond’s opportunity, it helps to grasp the scale and economics of fixed-income investing. The global bond market exceeds one hundred trillion dollars in outstanding value, making it substantially larger than global equity markets. Most institutional investors hold significant bond allocations: pension funds because bonds provide predictable income streams to match liabilities, insurance companies because of regulatory capital requirements favoring bonds, and endowments and asset managers because bonds provide diversification and stability. This enormous pool of capital depends on market infrastructure to function — pricing data, credit analysis, execution platforms, and portfolio analytics that help investors navigate yield curves, credit spreads, duration risk, and the maze of bond characteristics (coupon rates, maturity dates, credit quality, call provisions, embedded options) that make every bond unique.

Our Bond’s revenue streams center on three areas: subscription fees from investors and dealers who use its platforms, market data licensing (selling price and transaction data), and potentially trading-related fees or technology licensing. The subscription model is particularly attractive to fintech companies because it is recurring and relatively stable compared to transaction-dependent revenue. A pension fund paying monthly for access to Our Bond’s portfolio analytics platform generates predictable revenue, and expanding that customer base is a conventional path to growth.

The competitive landscape in fixed-income fintech is crowded and competitive. Bloomberg’s Terminal has dominated institutional fixed-income market data and analytics for decades, and any new entrant must compete on price, user experience, speed of innovation, or specialized capabilities that Bloomberg does not offer well. Our Bond has positioned itself as a technology-native alternative, built for cloud deployment and modern workflows, rather than the legacy terminal-and-keyboard interface that Bloomberg still relies on in many cases.

The market opportunity is genuine. Institutional fixed-income asset managers, dealers, and trading operations spend billions annually on market data, analytics, and trading technology. If Our Bond can capture a meaningful share of this spending — even a small percentage — the revenue base can be substantial. Moreover, regulatory requirements around pre-trade and post-trade transparency have grown in recent years, particularly in the United States and Europe, which has expanded the addressable market for reliable, compliant data and reporting tools.

However, fintech infrastructure companies face a classic challenge: while the market is large, switching costs are high. A major asset manager that has built its investment processes around Bloomberg Terminal is reluctant to move; the transition cost in retraining staff and disrupting workflows is significant, and the company must be convinced that the new platform is genuinely better. This creates a slow adoption cycle for new entrants, which can strain cash flow during the growth phase. Our Bond must therefore decide between investing heavily to convert customers (expensive, may take years) or focusing on underserved segments (smaller addressable market).

The company’s operational footprint spans product development, customer acquisition, data partnerships, and regulatory compliance. Maintaining data quality is critical: if Our Bond’s pricing data or transaction reporting is inaccurate, customers lose trust immediately and defect to competitors. This creates a competitive moat for accurate, well-maintained data sets, but building and maintaining that moat requires continuous investment.

Regulatory environment is a double-edged sword. Securities regulators in the US (the SEC) and Europe (ESMA and national authorities) have been increasingly prescriptive about what data must be reported and made public post-trade in fixed-income markets. These regulations expand the need for Our Bond’s services, but they also change compliance requirements and can shift the competitive dynamics if a new entrant gains regulatory favor or if an incumbent regulator imposes new standards on data providers.

Our Bond’s financial model hinges on unit economics: the cost to acquire a new customer relative to the lifetime value of that customer’s subscription. If the customer acquisition cost is high and the annual contract value is low, the company will struggle to grow profitably. If the company can keep acquisition cost low (through brand, referrals, or network effects) and push contract value high (through upselling, expansion into adjacent services), the business can scale. The company’s ability to execute on this metric is central to its investment thesis.

From a research perspective, key metrics include customer count and net-dollar retention (how much revenue grows from existing customers without adding new ones). A fintech infrastructure company with high net-dollar retention is expanding usage and value with existing clients, which is a sign of product-market fit. A company with declining net-dollar retention, even if adding new customers, may be facing product satisfaction issues.

The financial statements should reveal how much the company spends on research and development versus sales and marketing. A company heavy on engineering may be investing in product leadership; a company heavy on sales may be attempting to move customers through brute-force adoption. The balance between the two is informative about management’s strategy.

Monitor the company’s data partnerships and integrations. Our Bond may partner with clearinghouses, exchanges, or other market participants to get access to transaction data that it then repackages and sells. These partnerships can be competitive moats or fragile dependencies, depending on the terms and the strength of the partner’s negotiating position.

Watch for new product launches or geographic expansion. If Our Bond is expanding into equities trading tools, derivatives analytics, or non-US markets, it is positioning for growth beyond its core fixed-income business. Such moves can unlock new revenue but also increase execution risk and resource requirements.

The fintech infrastructure market is dynamic, with significant capital invested by both venture firms and strategic buyers (Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, data aggregators). Acquisition by a larger market-data firm is a plausible outcome for Our Bond if it achieves sufficient scale and customer traction. That exit path is relevant to equity holders evaluating the company’s long-term value.

A critical consideration for Our Bond is the role of central banks and macroeconomic policy in driving bond market activity. During periods of rising interest rates, bond valuations fluctuate widely, creating both uncertainty and opportunity for investors who must rebalance portfolios frequently. Volatile rate environments increase the demand for accurate pricing, real-time analytics, and trading tools — exactly what Our Bond offers. Conversely, in a low-rate or stable-rate environment, trading volumes may decline and some institutional investors may reduce their technology spending. The company’s revenue is therefore partially cyclical, tied to interest-rate volatility and the overall health of fixed-income trading.

The company also faces the classic tension between breadth and depth. Should Our Bond build tools for the entire fixed-income universe (government bonds, corporate bonds, municipal bonds, emerging-market bonds, structured products) or should it specialize deeply in a single segment? Broad platforms attract more customers and revenue but require substantial development resources; specialized platforms can dominate a niche and move faster, but they leave revenue on the table. Management’s strategic choices about product scope reveal whether the company is building a giant platform or cultivating a defensible specialty.

Understanding Our Bond’s path to profitability requires examining how the company balances customer acquisition investment with cash generation. Many fintech firms in their growth phase burn significant cash on sales and marketing to build market share, accepting near-term losses in pursuit of long-term profitability. Our Bond likely follows this playbook: spending heavily to acquire major asset managers and dealers, then generating recurring revenue from those relationships. The inflection point — where subscription revenue and data licensing revenue exceed the cost of customer acquisition and operations — is key to the investment thesis. Companies that reach profitability while still growing revenue rapidly have found product-market fit and can scale efficiently.