London-based capital markets firm LO:TECH has raised $12 million in a Series A round to take its always-on trading infrastructure to the US and Asia-Pacific.
MMC led the round, with existing investors Faction and 13 Books Capital returning and new backer Atka joining. No valuation was disclosed. The money comes about 15 months after a $5 million seed round led by 13 Books Capital.
Built for markets that never close
The company, founded by chief executive Tim Meggs and chief technology officer Marcus Horsley, started as a high-frequency trading and market-making business focused on digital assets. It has since widened its scope to cover traditional, digital and prediction markets, with infrastructure designed to run continuously and settle onchain.
Alongside the funding, LO:TECH has launched execution services aimed at institutional clients, helping them trade across these markets without managing each venue separately. Meggs has argued that a capital markets firm which grew up in digital assets can compete with the largest names in traditional finance, and that London is a credible home for it.
Data as well as trading
The firm has also been building a data business. Its prices stream on Pyth Pro, which puts institutional-grade pricing onchain, and it publishes live and historical prediction market feeds. It has also created a pricing feed for computing power, along with an index tracking the cost of compute, a sign of how far the company is stretching beyond conventional securities.
Expansion plans
The new capital will fund offices in New York and Singapore and the growth of the execution business. Both are natural targets. The US is home to much of the demand for tokenised assets and prediction markets, while Singapore remains a regional hub for digital asset trading.
Why it matters
Investors are increasingly interested in infrastructure for markets that trade around the clock, as tokenised stocks, stablecoins and event-based contracts move from experiment to product. LO:TECH is betting that institutions will want a single counterparty that can provide liquidity, execution and reference data across all of them.
The round is modest next to the large rounds going to AI companies this year, but it adds to evidence that onchain market infrastructure is drawing steady venture backing.