Tokenization for SMEs: Building a New Market Infrastructure

Alejandro Martínez · 2026-04-22

### A Market That Doesn't Serve Its Best Customers Imagine a platform where European small and medium businesses can raise money without relying on traditional banking or stock exchanges. Those old systems are slow, expensive, and frankly, not built for companies of this size. We're talking about an infrastructure that actually connects available capital to the real economy, where previously illiquid assets become instantly tradable. This isn't just a tech upgrade. It's a quiet revolution in how investors and businesses interact. By using tokenization and modern settlement mechanisms, this new generation of marketplace cuts costs, boosts liquidity, and opens up real growth opportunities. The goal is simple: rebuild the market so it serves the economy, not the other way around. *This article summarizes the keynote "Marketplace 3.0: Tokenization for SME Financing" by Mark Kepeneghian, Founder and CEO of Lise, presented at FinTech R:Evolution | #FFT26 | Flight to Quality.* ### The Blind Spot in European Markets Here's the paradox: Europe has plenty of savings. Governments have spent years trying to steer that money into productive investments. But small and medium businesses still can't get the equity they need to grow, hire, or invest in new equipment. Why? It's not a lack of money or interest. It's a problem with the market's plumbing. - On one side, France and the EU have massive savings pools looking for good homes. - On the other, SMEs and mid-cap companies can't access the capital markets easily. - Programs like IR-PME, PEA-PME, and small-cap funds exist, but they haven't moved the needle. The real issue is that the entire intermediation system is built for big companies. It assumes you can absorb fixed costs, administrative burdens, and legal complexity that would crush a smaller operation.  ### Why First-Generation Marketplaces Fell Short A wave of platforms tried to fix this by cutting out middlemen. They made it easier to find funding, sure. But they never really solved the liquidity problem. Once you bought a share, how do you sell it later? On a traditional market, the post-trade process is a nightmare. After a trade executes, you've got layers of intermediaries: exchange, clearing house, settlement system, central depository, custodian. Each layer adds time and cost. For a large company, this is just the cost of doing business. For an SME, it's a dealbreaker. The recurring costs of maintaining a listing alone can eat up any benefit. Until you fix what happens after the sale, you're only solving half the puzzle. ### Tokenization Rewrites the Rules This is where tokenization changes everything. By turning securities into digital tokens, you make them easier to transfer, track, and integrate into efficient trading and settlement systems. The result is a dramatic reduction in management, transfer, and processing costs. But the real magic is liquidity. When a security is slow to transfer and expensive to administer, investors are stuck holding it forever. They can't exit easily, so they don't enter in the first place. A tokenized infrastructure changes that. It creates a secondary market where tokens can move freely and quickly. Think of it like this: traditional markets are like moving goods by oxcart. Tokenization is like putting them on a high-speed rail network. Same goods, but the cost, speed, and reach are completely different. ### What This Means for SMEs and Investors For SMEs, this is a lifeline. They can issue equity or debt directly to a wider pool of investors without the massive overhead of a traditional IPO. For investors, it means access to a new asset class with better liquidity and lower barriers to entry. We're not talking about replacing banks entirely. But we are talking about creating a parallel system that actually works for the companies that drive most of Europe's employment and innovation. The technology is ready. The regulatory framework is evolving. What's needed now is the will to build something new. And that's exactly what leaders like Mark Kepeneghian are pushing for.