Talos, the premier provider of institutional digital asset trading technology, announced a $105 mm Series B funding round that values the company at $1.25 billion.
https://twitter.com/talostrading/status/1523999356864638976
The round was led by global growth equity firm General Atlantic with participation from veteran investors in both the traditional finance and digital asset spaces. New investors including Stripes, BNY Mellon, Citi, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, DRW, SCB 10x, Matrix Capital Management, Fin VC and Voyager Digital, Graticule Asset Management Asia (GAMA) and LeadBlock Partners joined the round.
“This funding round represents a major inflection point for the industry. We’ve long heard that ‘the institutions are coming’. The institutions are now here, and we’re extremely proud to be the digital asset trading platform of choice for leading institutions around the world,” said Anton Katz, co-founder and CEO of Talos.
“We believe that the digital assets infrastructure will have a wide-scale impact on the entire financial industry and ultimately, we will see traditional asset classes ultimately migrate to this new technology as well. Our investors, which include some of the most storied institutions on Wall St., share this belief and we’re honored to have their confidence and support.”
Existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, PayPal Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Fidelity Investments, Illuminate Financial, Initialized Capital, and Notation Capital also extended their partnerships with Talos through this newest funding round.
The funding comes on the heels of rapid growth for the firm, which has seen institutional trading volume explode over 20x year-over-year. The company intends to leverage this capital to scale and diversify the firm’s industry-leading institutional-grade digital asset platform that powers both buy-side and sell-side firms and seeks to accelerate Talos’s expansion into APAC and Europe. Additionally, the firm expects to expand its product lines to support the complete, end-to-end trade lifecycle and strengthen its powerful pre and post-trade tools.
“We believe the growth in digital assets is driving existing players and new entrants to seek out institutional-grade solutions. Talos provides enterprise grade order management, liquidity aggregation, algorithmic execution, reporting and compliance to market participants, which should allow for more efficient operations, better execution and lower total cost of ownership,” said Aaron Goldman, Managing Director and Co-Head of Financial Services at General Atlantic. “Crypto market structure is still evolving, and Talos’ vision to build a comprehensive toolkit for market participants across CeFi and DeFi positions the company as a competitive disruptor.”
Since developing its platform in 2018, Talos has proven the product-market fit and viability of its institutional-grade technology, which powers the full trade lifecycle for trading, settlement, and more via a single point of access. The company’s client base spans the entire digital asset ecosystem, from buy-side institutions to financial service providers, and includes broker-dealers, prime brokers, hedge funds, banks, OTC desks, custodians, exchanges and lenders.
“Talos has built the most powerful technology infrastructure stack aggregating connectivity across the crypto ecosystem, exemplifying Stripes’ focus on truly amazing products and teams that are obsessed with disrupting dynamic and important markets,” said Ken Fox, Founder and Partner at Stripes. “We are thrilled to partner with Talos as they further catalyze and accelerate the institutional adoption of digital assets.”
“This investment is the latest example of BNY Mellon’s commitment to the future of digital assets,” said Jason Vitale, Global Head of FX, Fixed Income and Equities at BNY Mellon. “As a new advisor on Talos’ Strategic Investor Forum, I look forward to collaborating with the leadership team to help deliver resilient, comprehensive institutional solutions to the market.”
In addition to expanding its industry-leading product line, Talos also intends to leverage the funding to further expand its world-class team across the globe. The team has grown by over 400% during the past year and offers opportunities in New York, London, Sweden and Singapore, as well as fully remote roles.
Source: Talos