Securitize has named notable investor, Blackstone advisor, and former International Monetary Fund board member Sunil Sabharwal to its board of directors. The move comes as Securitize continues to pursue a public listing through a merger with Cantor Equity Partners II, Inc.

Sabharwal is a longtime business executive who currently serves on the boards of Thunes and TookiTaki. He previously served as chair for payment companies Earthport and Ogone, which were acquired by Visa and Ingenico, respectively.

Perhaps most notably, Sabharwal was also a Senate-confirmed U.S. representative to the International Monetary Fund, for which he was awarded the U.S. Treasury’s Distinguished Service Award. He was nominated by President Barack Obama in 2016 and served primarily during President Donald Trump’s first term until 2018.

"Sunil’s career is defined by building and scaling financial infrastructure at a global level," Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo said. "From leading cross-border payments companies to representing the United States at the IMF, he brings a rare combination of public and private sector experience. As tokenization moves from concept to core market infrastructure, Sunil’s perspective will be invaluable in guiding our next phase of growth."

Since 2021, Sabharwal has acted as an advisor and operating partner for the Blackstone Growth Equity Fund, according to LinkedIn. He also previously advised SpiceVC, which was an early backer of Securitize.

Securitize manages over $4 billion in onchain assets, including the massive BlackRock BUIDL fund and tokenized products for Apollo, BNY, Hamilton Lane, KKR, VanEck, among others.

The firm entered into a definitive acquisition agreement with a Cantor Fitzgerald-sponsored firm in October in a deal that would value Securitize at $1 billion. This combined firm would trade on Nasdaq as CEPT, and give Securitize access to the $240 million CEPT raised in its IPO.