Karachi-based fintech Seed Labs has raised $6.4 million in capital through a seed funding round at a $50 million valuation.
The fintech has landed funding for its trading app – called dTrade – that allows users to trade derivatives without needing a brokerage or clearinghouse. It also removes counterparty risk.
The funding comes from an initiative supported by venture capitalists from nine countries. Investors include institutional liquidity providers, Alameda Research, Kronos Research, LedgerPrime and several others, which collectively trade 28B+/day, a statement by Seed Labs said.
“They will be supporting us in building a highly liquid and easily accessible derivatives exchange,” the statement added.
Seed Labs was co-founded a year ago by Yameen Malik, Rabeel Jawaid, Zabi Mohebzada, and Ahmad Jawaid. Yameen has over six publications in AI and work experience with Symantec as a Software Engineer. Rabeel has a background in Physics while Zabi has a background in biological sciences. Ahmad brings to the table his work experience as a Software Engineer in Silicon Valley.
Zabi said, “In the initial phase, trading platform will primarily be a Perpetual Swap Trading Exchange. On a deeper technical level, any trade pair from any asset class can be offered — from commodities, equities, digital assets to pre-IPO stocks. For now, the focus of Seed Labs remains on the target markets of Europe and the Asia Pacific Region”.
He also said that the derivatives exchange is expected to launch in the third quarter of the current year, and as of now it is undergoing the first round of technical security and penetration testing audits.
Including the four cofounders, the fintech has 24 team members, 18 of whom are based in Karachi, while the remaining six join from Sydney, Toronto, Washington DC, Novi Sad, New York, and San Francisco.
