Vest Labs Raises $13M Pre-Seed Led by Portal Ventures

Vest Labs, a New York-based proprietary trading firm, has raised $13 million in a pre-seed round led by Portal Ventures, according to Financemagnates, which cited Fortune. The round closed in July and also drew angel investment from senior executives at Citadel Securities, BlackRock and KKR. Venture backing is uncommon for prop trading firms, and a pre-seed of this size is rarer still, since most competitors fund themselves through bootstrapping.

Cryptobriefing also reported the raise, describing Vest as a firm that says it earns money only when its traders do rather than from fees on simulated accounts. The two outlets differ on the round’s label: Financemagnates and Fortune called it a pre-seed, while Cryptobriefing’s headline and lede described it as a seed round. Both agree it closed in July and was led by Portal Ventures.

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Key facts

• Vest Labs raised $13 million, led by Portal Ventures, in a round that closed in July and included angel investments from senior executives at Citadel Securities, BlackRock and KKR, as reported by Financemagnates.
• The firm is cofounded by University of Pennsylvania dropouts Justin Ma, Rikuya Takatsu and Maximilian Tsiang, according to Financemagnates; Cryptobriefing reported that Ma serves as CEO.
• Vest Labs reported roughly 27,000 traders as of late September, with about 26% having received cash payouts, per Financemagnates.
• Cryptobriefing reported that Vest previously raised around $10 million from investors including Jane Street, Amber Group and QCP Capital.
• Payouts are made in USDC, the dollar-pegged stablecoin, and the exchange runs on a real-time risk pricing engine called zkRisk, according to Cryptobriefing.

A pitch built on company capital, not trader fees

Most retail prop trading firms charge for simulated accounts, earning from those fees whether or not the trader succeeds. Vest Labs says it works the other way: through its platform, Vest Markets, qualifying traders use company capital on perpetual futures tied to equity indices, crypto and commodities, and Vest takes a share of the gains. Perpetual futures are derivatives that let traders take a position on an asset’s price without owning it; unlike traditional futures they carry no expiry date, so a position can stay open as long as the trader keeps it funded.

Profit splits run up to 80%, and rise to up to 95% on certain account types, according to Cryptobriefing. Financemagnates framed the same 80-95% range as consistent with industry benchmarks. Vest told Fortune that monthly active traders and volume both grew more than 300% month over month.

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The firm is building its technology in-house rather than licensing a third-party platform. Vienna-based prop firm TradersYard made the case against outsourcing to Financemagnates, saying that relying on a third-party platform lets a firm launch quickly and cheaply but that it undermines long-term sustainability, because revenue-sharing deals leave thin margins.

Why it matters

Prop trading has mostly been a bootstrapped business, so a venture round of this size signals that some investors are willing to fund the model if it is built on real market exposure rather than account fees. For traders, the distinction is practical: payouts depend on live performance, and Vest’s reported USDC settlement fits a platform open around the clock across crypto and traditional asset markets. The backer list also points to Vest’s hybrid position, pairing a traditional prop trading structure with digital-asset rails. That is not financial advice, and crypto and derivatives markets remain volatile and uncertain.

What to watch

The concrete tests are whether Vest ships the mobile app and hires beyond its current 22 employees with the new capital, and whether the reported 300% month-over-month growth in active traders and volume holds up in the months after the round closed. Broader 24/7 multi-asset support is the third stated goal, and it will show whether the firm can widen its listed markets without loosening risk controls.

Written by

Benjamin

Benjamin Carter covers business, finance, and the stock market for StockPil, focusing on the trends and data that matter to everyday investors.

Sources: Finance Magnates, Cryptobriefing