US-based FalconX, a digital asset trading platform that provides clients best execution using data science, announced today it has secured $17M in financing from investors.
The list of investors includes Accel, Accomplice VC, Coinbase Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Flybridge Capital Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Avon Ventures, according to the firm.
The funding will be used to introduce new products, expand FalconX’s trade execution suite and scale infrastructure to support growing institutional demand for cryptocurrency.
“We’re entering an era defined by the true digitization of value, whether Bitcoin, Ethereum or new experiments such as Libra, or Digital Yuan, much like what we saw in the early 2000s with the digitization of information on the internet. For open, permissionless and truly global digital assets to be adopted by mainstream institutions, today’s digital financial infrastructure is grossly inadequate,” said Raghu Yarlagadda, FalconX CEO and co-founder. “FalconX is building the connective tissue, with seamless price discovery, trade execution, and value transfer. Our technology will provide the infrastructure for the future of digital assets.”
FalcoX said that over the last 10 months the firm has generated $7 billion in global trading volume at a quarterly growth rate of over 600 percent, driven by tight spreads, eliminating slippage and hidden fees, and maintaining enterprise-grade security.
Trading as principal, FalconX has built robust liquidity through a combination of lit liquidity pools (exchanges) and proprietary dark pools. Its client base includes over 100 financial institutions across traditional finance including hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, payment gateways, over-the-counter trading desks, cryptocurrency miners, and exchanges. FalconX is expanding its regulatory footprint to continue growing its customer base across new jurisdictions and product lines.
Strong founding team
The firm was founded by Raghu Yarlagadda and Prabhahar Reddy in 2018. Yarlagadda, an engineer and entrepreneur by background, held several product leadership roles prior to FalconX, including at Google, where he was instrumental in scaling Chromebooks to a multi-billion dollar revenue business.
Reddy, an investor, engineer and a serial entrepreneur, previously drove blockchain and enterprise SaaS investments at venture capital firm Accel. The founding team blends Silicon Valley and Wall Street, bringing experience from Google, Citadel, Goldman Sachs, Jump Trading, PayPal, Pantera Capital, WorldQuant, Kraken, and PEAK6 Investments.
