On Wednesday, Talos, a U.S.-based developer of digital asset trading technology for institutional clients, announced it has raised a $105 million Series B funding round bringing the company to an implied valuation of $1.25 billion. The round was led by global growth equity firm General Atlantic with participation from veteran investors in traditional and digital asset management. New investors including 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 joined the round.
Existing investors including Andreessen Horowitz, PayPal Ventures, Castle Island Ventures, Fidelity Investments, Illuminate Financial, Initialized Capital, and Notation Capital also extended their participation in the round.
“A major inflection point”
“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,” Talos co-founder and CEO Anton Katz said. “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.”
The company says it will use the new capital to scale and diversify its institutional-grade digital asset platform to benefit both buy-side and sell-side firms, and accelerate Talos’s expansion into APAC and Europe. Talos also wants to expand its product lines to support the complete, end-to-end trade lifecycle and strengthen its suite of 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 its inception in 2018, Talos says it has proven the product-market fit and viability of its institutional-grade technology, which powers the full trade lifecycle for trading, settlement, and more from a single access point. 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,” Stripes Founder and Partner Ken Fox offered. “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 Talos investor 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.”
This latest investment round follows a $40 million Series A round for Talos in May 2021. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with investments from PayPal Ventures, Fidelity Investments, Galaxy Digital, Elefund, Illuminate Financial, and STEADFAST Capital Ventures.
