Robinhood (HOOD) is investing in Talos, an institutional trading technology provider for digital assets, in an extended Series B funding round that values the New York-based company at around $1.5 billion.
Talos originally raised $105 million in a Series B funding round in May 2022, valuing the firm at $1.25 billion. The new extension brings the firm’s total amount raised in its Series B to $150 million, the company said in a press release on Thursday.
“We extended our series B round to accommodate interest from strategic partners who recognize Talos’s role in providing core institutional infrastructure for digital assets. At a time when traditional asset classes are increasingly migrating to digital rails, these partners wanted to be more closely aligned with our growth,” said Anton Katz, CEO and co-founder of Talos, in emailed comments.
New strategic investors Robinhood Markets, Sony Innovation Fund, IMC, QCP, and Karatage joined the extended round, alongside returning backers a16z crypto, BNY and Fidelity Investments.
“Talos’s flexibility and rapid adaptability allow us to deepen our liquidity and deliver even more advanced features to Robinhood Crypto customers,” said Johann Kerbrat, SVP and GM of Crypto at Robinhood, in the release.
Robinhood has been expanding its reach in crypto and blockchain infrastructure as part of its broader expansion strategy.
The company is developing its own blockchain network built on Arbitrum and has rolled out tokenized stock trading and other crypto products in Europe, alongside new staking and perpetual futures offerings, signaling a shift toward crypto-native finance. It has also seen strong growth in areas such as prediction markets, and recently reported increased trading volumes and product engagement amid these strategic investments.
Talos is a crypto trading technology firm that builds institutional-grade infrastructure to power 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 institutions with tools for trade execution, risk management and post-trade settlement through a single interface or API.
It counts hundreds of clients across roughly 35 countries, with traditional finance firms making up 60% to 70% of new customers over the past year. Asset managers using Talos’ platform collectively represent about $21 trillion in assets under management, CEO Anton Katz told investment bank Jefferies in a client call in November.
The firm’s Series B in 2022 was led by General Atlantic, with participation from firms including BNY, Citi (C), Wells Fargo Strategic Capital and DRW Venture Capital, alongside 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 buying Coin Metrics for over $100 million, bringing in its onchain analytics, market data and benchmark indexes as its largest deal yet. Before that, it snapped up D3X Systems, Cloudwall, and Skolem as part of its broader expansion through M&A.
Read more: Tether said to have invested up to $50 million in crypto lender Ledn at $500 million valuation