Vest Labs has completed a $13 million seed round financing to build a proprietary cryptocurrency trading platform that shares profits

New York startup Vest Labs announced the completion of a $13 million seed round financing, which closed in July this year, led by Portal Ventures, with participation from individual investors including Citadel Securities, BlackRock, and KKR executives.

Vest was co-founded by University of Pennsylvania dropout Justin Ma, Rikuya Takatsu, and Maximilian Tsiang. The platform allows qualified traders to use company funds to trade perpetual futures contracts around the clock, with traders able to receive up to 80% of the profit share, differentiating itself from traditional proprietary trading firms that charge users for simulated account fees. The company plans to use the funding to develop a mobile application, expand its 22-person team, and broaden the range of tradable asset classes.