Talos raises $105m from top names, including General Atlantic, Stripes, BNY Mellon
“Talos has built the most powerful technology infrastructure stack aggregating connectivity across the crypto ecosystem.”
Talos has raised $105 million in a Series B funding round that values the company at $1.25 billion, the provider of institutional digital asset trading technology announced.
Led by equity firm General Atlantic, the fundraiser had participation from several names in both the traditional finance and digital asset spaces, including new investors Stripes, BNY Mellon, Citi, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, DRW Venture Capital, SCB 10x, Matrix Capital Management, Fin VC, Voyager Digital, Graticule Asset Management Asia (GAMA) and LeadBlock Partners.
Also joining the funding round were existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, PayPal Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Fidelity Investments, Illuminate Financial, Initialized Capital, and Notation Capital.
The institutions are now here
Anton Katz, co-founder and CEO of Talos, said: “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. 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 migrate to use 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.”
Talos has seen institutional trading volume explode over 20 times year-over-year and was in need of funding to keep scaling and diversifying the firm’s digital asset platform that powers both buy-side and sell-side firms. The company is also looking to accelerate its expansion into APAC and Europe, as well as to expand its product lines, including pre and post-trade tools.
The funding will also prove valuable to fuel the required massive hiring to put the plan into effect. The team has already grown by over 400% during the past year and offers opportunities in New York, Europe and Singapore, as well as fully remote roles.
Founded in 2018, Talos powers the full trade lifecycle for trading and settlement via a single point of access and caters to broker-dealers, prime brokers, hedge funds, banks, OTC desks, custodians, exchanges, and lenders.
Aaron Goldman, Managing Director and Co-Head of Financial Services at General Atlantic, commented: “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. 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.”
Ken Fox, Founder and Partner at Stripes, added: “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. We are thrilled to partner with Talos as they further catalyze and accelerate the institutional adoption of digital assets.”
Jason Vitale, Global Head of FX, Fixed Income and Equities at BNY Mellon, stated: “This investment is the latest example of BNY Mellon’s commitment to the future of digital assets. 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.”
