Aequitas hopes to challenge the dominant TMX Group Inc. owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Upstart stock exchange Aequitas Innovations Inc. which is already backed by industry heavy hitters including RBC Capital Markets and Barclays. has added to the roster with Invesco Canada Ltd. the British Columbia Investment Management Corp. Maison Placements Canada, and BBS Securities Inc.

The first stage of the Aequitas platform is scheduled to launch March 27, and, on Thursday, the firm announced the completion of a “significantly oversubscribed” pre-launch share offering.

Jos Schmitt, the company’s chief executive, said about $30-million was raised to fund the launch of a trading platform in a couple of weeks and a listings exchange by mid-year.

Aequitas hopes to challenge the dominant TMX Group Inc. owner of the Toronto Stock Exchange. The new trading and exchange group is being positioned as an alternative for “buy side” and retail investors who are frustrated by existing options.

For example, Aequitas aims to use financial disincentives and trading “speed bumps” to help investors using their platform avoid “predatory” high-frequency electronic traders.

Though there are major banks backing the upstart, as is the case with TMX Group, Aequitas said majority ownership of the firm after its share offering remains in the hands of investors and capital-raising companies.

Mr. Schmitt said Aequitas officials have already begun making the rounds to sell companies on the idea of listing on the new exchange.

“What we have seen is there is a lot of interest,” he said, adding that there is “frustration” due to a lack of competition.

Still, building the exchange will be challenging due to familiarity and ubiquity of the Toronto Stock Exchange, said Doug Clark, managing director of research at ITG Canada Corp.

“The key to listings is a market must build retail brand. Until a market can become known by the marketplace at large, they can’t compete,” he said.

The difficulty of breaking in has already been demonstrated by dominant exchange challengers such as the BATS Exchange in the United States, and Chi-X, which is owned by a consortium of financial institutions and operates in Australia, Canada, and Japan.

“Brand building takes time… it won’t happen quickly,” Mr. Clark said.