Investing in Talos

When crypto first emerged, the traditional finance world mostly ignored it. We expected these institutions would eventually want to participate in the crypto economy, and that there would be a need for a company that would help bridge the gap between traditional finance and the crypto ecosystem. Building a robust infrastructure stack that could connect dozens of liquidity sources and eventually support trillions of dollars in traded volume would be no small feat. 

The company best suited to doing that would be one that understands traditional capital markets deeply, but is also forward-thinking enough to fully grasp the promise of crypto and talented enough to build institutional-grade financial infrastructure needed to connect traditional and emerging markets. Talos is that company.

Our relationship with Talos goes back several years. Arianna first met the team through an introduction from Rachel Meyer, an MIT classmate of Anton’s, when the entire company consisted of Anton, Ethan, and a pitch deck. What stood out then as much as it does today was the exceptional caliber of the team, as both Anton and Ethan have stellar technical backgrounds.

It’s not their first rodeo together either –– Anton and Ethan spent six years working together at Broadway Technologies, architecting financial infrastructure for traditional markets, an incredibly relevant experience given what Talos is building. 

Since that first meeting, they have delivered on their roadmap with phenomenal precision, building an exceptional team with deep engineering and capital markets expertise. Today, Talos powers a wide range of institutions that interact with digital assets — from hedge funds trading cryptocurrencies through the Talos UIs and APIs to asset managers and brokers providing crypto trading services to their clients through Talos’s Dealer offering.

Despite our long history with the company, as part of the diligence process, we set out to understand how customers viewed the Talos team and their technology. The feedback did not disappoint. 

“Their technology is world-class, and these guys are stars,” we heard time and time again in doing customer references –– they would “get on the line at midnight on New Year’s Eve within three minutes if we needed them.” That’s the kind of commitment we’d want as customers, and it’s the kind of team we’re thrilled to back.  

That’s why we couldn’t be more excited to announce we’re leading a $40 million Series A in Talos. We believe the next few years in crypto will bring a massive influx of institutional capital into the space, and we’re thrilled to partner with Anton, Ethan, and team as they build the next generation of financial infrastructure technology.

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