Robinhood (HOOD) has invested in Talos, an institutional trading technology provider for digital assets, in an expanded Series B funding round that values the New York-based company at approximately $1.5 billion.
Talos originally raised $105 million in a Series B funding round in May 2022, valuing the company at $1.25 billion. The new extension brings the company’s total Series B funding to $150 million, the company said in a press release Thursday.
“We extended our Series B round in response to the interest of strategic partners who recognize Talos’ role in providing core organizational infrastructure for digital assets. These partners wanted to be more closely aligned with our growth as traditional asset classes increasingly transition to digital rails,” Talos CEO and co-founder Anton Katz said in an emailed comment.
New strategic investors Robinhood Markets, Sony Innovation Fund, IMC, QCP, and Cartage participated in the extension round, as did previous backers a16z Crypto, BNY, and Fidelity Investments.
Johann Kerbrat, SVP and GM of Crypto at Robinhood, said in a release:
Robinhood has been expanding its reach in cryptocurrency and blockchain infrastructure as part of a broader expansion strategy.
The company is developing its own blockchain network built on Arbitrum and is rolling out tokenized stock trading and other crypto products in Europe alongside new staking and perpetual futures products, signaling a move towards crypto-native finance. We have also seen strong growth in areas such as prediction markets, with recent increases in volume and product engagement reported within these strategic investments.
Talos is a cryptocurrency trading technology company that builds institutional-grade infrastructure that powers the entire digital asset trading lifecycle for professional investors, brokers, and banks. Its platform pools liquidity from exchanges, over-the-counter (OTC) desks, and prime brokers and provides financial institutions with tools for trade execution, risk management, and post-trade settlement through a single interface or API.
It has hundreds of customers in about 35 countries, with traditional finance companies accounting for 60% to 70% of new customers in the past year. Asset managers using Talos’ platform collectively represent about $21 trillion in assets under management, CEO Anton Katz told investment bank Jefferies on a call with clients in November.
The company’s 2022 Series B was led by General Atlantic, with participation from firms such as BNY, Citi (C), Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, and DRW Venture Capital, as well as crypto-focused investors such as SCB 10x and LeadBlock Partners. Existing backers including Andreessen Horowitz, PayPal Ventures, Fidelity Investments, and Castle Island Ventures also participated in the round.
Talos has been on a notable acquisition spree, most recently acquiring Coin Metrics for more than $100 million, introducing on-chain analytics, market data, and benchmarking indexes in the company’s largest-ever deal. Prior to that, we acquired D3X Systems, Cloudwall, and Skolem as part of a broader expansion through M&A.
read more: Tether is said to have invested up to $50 million in Ledn, a cryptocurrency lender valued at $500 million.