Trading Startup LO:TECH Raises $12M Funding to Build Market Maker for 24/7 Onchain Markets

LO:TECH, the London-based high-frequency trading and market-making firm, has raised $12 million in Series A funding led by MMC, with participation from existing investors Faction and 13 Books Capital, alongside new investor Atka . The company did not disclose its valuation.

The funding comes as LO:TECH prepares to expand into the US and Asia-Pacific, establishing a presence in New York and Singapore, and grow its newly launched execution services for institutional clients across traditional, digital, and prediction markets . The firm has tripled revenue and doubled headcount since its $5 million seed round in August 2025, and now serves more than 50 institutional clients, including publicly listed companies .

LO:TECH Funding Overview By CREDX Media

Startup Name	LO:TECH
Founders	Tim Meggs (CEO), Marcus Horsley (CTO), Alex Williams (Head of Engineering)
Founded	2022 (Post-FTX)
HQ	London, UK
Round	Series A Funding
Amount Raised	$12M
Valuation	Not disclosed
Category	High-Frequency Trading, Market Making, Digital Assets
Lead Investor	MMC
Key Investors	Faction, 13 Books Capital, Atka
Total Funding Raised	~$17M (including $5M seed)
Employees	Under 20 (doubled since seed)
Clients	50+ institutional clients
Key Products	Proprietary trading, market data, execution services
Kalshi License	Data distributor licence (July 2026)

💡 Use of Funds

• Geographic Expansion: Establishing offices in New York and Singapore, and pursuing regulatory approvals in new markets, including exploring US licences .
• Execution Services Growth: Scaling the newly launched execution services for institutional clients across traditional, digital, and prediction markets .
• Team Expansion: Continuing to grow the team, which has already doubled since the seed round .

Startup Overview: LO:TECH

What LO:TECH Is Building in Simple Words

LO:TECH is a high-frequency trading and market-making firm built from the ground up for markets that never close. Unlike traditional trading firms that evolved from exchange-based infrastructure with fixed opening hours, LO:TECH’s systems were designed for a world where assets trade 24/7 across onchain venues, traditional exchanges, and prediction markets.

• High-Frequency Market Making: Executes tens of thousands of trades per second, providing liquidity for fast trades across multiple venues .
• Proprietary Trading: The bulk of the business is trading its own capital, generating revenue through market-making spreads .
• Market Data Distribution: Resells market data to clients, with a Kalshi data distributor licence secured in July 2026 .
• Execution Services: Newly launched offering that routes institutional clients’ orders across traditional, digital, and prediction markets .
• Cross-Venue Infrastructure: The same technology that trades exotic DeFi pools can trade equities, FX, and commodities on traditional exchanges .

Why LO:TECH Matters

• Built for a structural market shift: Capital markets were built for a world that opened at 8am and closed at 4.30pm. That’s not how risk is traded anymore. LO:TECH’s infrastructure was designed from scratch for 24/7, onchain, cross-asset trading .
• Tokenised assets are surging while crypto declines: In the year to June 2026, total crypto market cap roughly halved, but tokenised real-world assets on public blockchains nearly doubled from $20.6 billion to $38 billion. Tokenised equities grew from $960 million to $3.2 billion .
• Founders forged by FTX’s collapse: Marcus Horsley and his co-founders lost their jobs when their previous firm exited digital assets after FTX imploded. Instead of finding new jobs, they built their own firm .
• Proven growth in tough conditions: Revenue has tripled since August 2025, with two consecutive years of triple-digit growth, despite the crypto market downturn .

Founder Background: The Team That Built a Trading Firm After Losing Their Jobs

Tim Meggs (CEO) brings 22 years of experience building and working in trading businesses across banks, hedge funds, and high-frequency trading firms. He holds degrees from UCL and Oxford University . His framing of the opportunity: “Capital markets were built for a world that opened at 8am and closed at 4.30pm. That’s not how risk is traded any more. The best trading firms in the world are technologically advanced, but they grew up on top of traditional market infrastructure. We built ours from scratch for markets that run 24/7, onchain and across every asset class” .

Marcus Horsley (CTO) holds a PhD in Maths from Cambridge University and has been doing quant research at tier-one investment firms across mid- and high-frequency since leaving academia in 2018. He has launched two successful DeFi projects . Horsley describes LO:TECH as “a high-frequency trading firm that does tens of thousands of trades a second, providing liquidity for the very fast trades” . His framing of the competitive opportunity: “There is room for a capital markets firm that grew up in digital assets to compete with the largest names in traditional finance, and we think that firm can be built in London” .

Alex Williams (Head of Engineering) brings three years of high-performance trading infrastructure experience following six years as a developer for hedge funds. He holds a BA in Mathematics from KCL .

The founding insight came from adversity. When FTX collapsed in 2022, the trading firm Horsley worked at exited digital assets, leaving him and his future co-founders unemployed. Rather than look for new jobs, they set up their own company .

Founder Intelligence: What Founders Can Learn from LO:TECH

• Turn a crisis into a founding moment: FTX’s collapse cost Horsley and his co-founders their jobs. Instead of seeking new employment, they built a firm designed for the market structure that FTX’s failure exposed as inevitable: 24/7, onchain, cross-asset trading.
• Build for where the market is going, not where it’s been: LO:TECH’s infrastructure was designed from scratch for round-the-clock markets. Competitors retrofitted legacy systems built for 8am-to-4.30pm exchanges. That architectural difference is the moat.
• Grow revenue through tough conditions: LO:TECH tripled revenue while crypto markets halved. Trading firms that can generate returns when markets are down prove their infrastructure and risk management are robust.
• Expand from a position of strength: The firm is moving from digital assets into traditional equities, FX, and commodities—not because crypto failed, but because the same technology works across all venues. Adjacent expansion from a proven base is lower-risk than starting from scratch.

Investor Intelligence: Why This Round Gets Premium Capital

MMC led the round. Partner Ollie Ricards framed the thesis: “Tim, Marcus and the LO:TECH team have built a business designed for markets that never close, delivering triple-digit revenue growth over the past year through exceptionally tough crypto market conditions. We’ve been investing in blockchain-based financial infrastructure for several years because we believe in the benefits tokenised real-world assets can bring. As more trading moves to always-on venues, we see a significant opportunity for LO:TECH to provide the infrastructure those markets need” .

Faction and 13 Books Capital returned after backing the $5 million seed round in August 2025, signaling continued conviction in the team and thesis .

The investor composition signals conviction: MMC’s deep experience in blockchain-based financial infrastructure, combined with early-stage backers who have supported LO:TECH from seed, positions the firm to scale as tokenised assets and always-on venues become standard.

The Road Ahead for LO:TECH

Expansion Targets

With $12 million in capital, LO:TECH will:

• Establish a presence in New York and Singapore, targeting the two major financial hubs where 24/7 trading demand is highest .
• Pursue regulatory approvals in the markets it enters, including exploring US licences .
• Grow execution services for institutional clients across traditional, digital, and prediction markets .
• Expand from digital assets into traditional exchanges, trading equities, FX, and commodities using the same infrastructure .

The Structural Question

LO:TECH trades its own capital as a liquidity provider while simultaneously offering to execute other firms’ orders on the same venues. Established brokers manage this tension with separation rules and regulatory oversight. How LO:TECH handles this conflict—and how regulators view it—will matter as much as its speed .

Competitive Response

Expect:

• Traditional market makers (Citadel Securities, Virtu) to deepen their onchain and 24/7 capabilities.
• Crypto-native trading firms to expand into tokenised traditional assets.
• New startups to emerge targeting specific niches within always-on trading.
• LO:TECH’s moat: built-for-purpose infrastructure + FTX-forged resilience + cross-venue technology + early traction with 50+ institutional clients.

Conclusion

LO:TECH’s $12 million Series A funding validates the thesis that the next generation of market makers will be built for 24/7, cross-asset, onchain trading—not retrofitted from exchange-era infrastructure. The firm’s founders turned FTX’s collapse into a founding moment, building technology that trades tens of thousands of times per second across digital and traditional venues.

Market tailwinds favor LO:TECH: tokenised real-world assets nearly doubled in a year while crypto halved, major exchanges like ICE and OKX are building bridges between traditional and onchain markets, and institutional demand for always-on liquidity is growing. The firm’s proven revenue growth, experienced founding team, and MMC’s backing position it to compete with Wall Street incumbents from a London base.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is LO:TECH’s total funding and latest round size?
LO:TECH has raised approximately $17 million total, including a $12 million Series A led by MMC and a $5 million seed round in August 2025 .

2. How much did LO:TECH raise in its Series A round and who led the investment?
LO:TECH raised $12 million led by MMC, with participation from Faction, 13 Books Capital, and Atka .

3. What is the valuation of LO:TECH?
LO:TECH did not disclose its post-money valuation .

4. Who are the major investors in LO:TECH?
Major investors include MMC (lead), Faction, 13 Books Capital, and Atka .

5. Who are LO:TECH’s founders?
LO:TECH was founded by Tim Meggs (CEO), Marcus Horsley (CTO), and Alex Williams (Head of Engineering) .

6. What is LO:TECH’s business model?
LO:TECH generates revenue through three lines: proprietary trading (the bulk of the business), market data distribution, and execution services for institutional clients .

7. How does LO:TECH’s technology work?
LO:TECH’s high-frequency trading infrastructure executes tens of thousands of trades per second across traditional, digital, and prediction markets. It was built from scratch for 24/7, onchain trading rather than retrofitted from exchange-era systems .

8. What traction justifies LO:TECH’s Series A funding?
LO:TECH has tripled revenue and doubled headcount since its August 2025 seed round. It serves 50+ institutional clients, including publicly listed companies, and has achieved two consecutive years of triple-digit revenue growth .

9. What are LO:TECH’s plans for the $12 million Series A capital?
LO:TECH will expand into New York and Singapore, pursue regulatory approvals in new markets, and grow its execution services for institutional clients .

10. What is the Kalshi data distributor licence?
LO:TECH secured a data distributor licence from Kalshi (a prediction market) in July 2026, allowing it to distribute Kalshi market data. This is significant given Kalshi’s reported $40 billion valuation trajectory .

11. Who is the CEO of LO:TECH?
Tim Meggs serves as CEO and co-founder. He has 22 years of experience in trading businesses across banks, hedge funds, and high-frequency trading firms, with degrees from UCL and Oxford .