Two big announcements from algorithmic trading and investing platform Quantopian are reminding us that there is more than one way to “robo-invest.”
First up is the $15 million the company raised in a Series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. Existing investors Khosla Ventures, Spark Capital, and Wicklow Capital also participated. CEO and Founder John Fawcett said that the capital will support further product development and potential expansion.
The investment takes Quantopian’s total capital to $23.8 million.
It’s hard to upstage a $15 million investment. But Quantopian’s second announcement of the week – its decision to launch a hedge fund driven by the investing algorithms of the platform’s best and brightest – may prove to be a more important development for the longer-term future of the company.
The Quantopian Managers Program will provide top-performing quant investors with trading capital. Users of the platform have been able to live trade their algorithms since the beginning of the year, and this latest initiative will give Quantopian’s most talented developer-investors the opportunity to benefit even further from their work.
Those applying for the program will need a six-month minimum track record on the platform. Quantopian hopes to invest up to $1 million in each of the selected algorithms, with the developers earning a share of the investment returns.
Quantopian was named one of America’s Most Promising Companies for 2014 by Forbes, one of five Finovate alums to make this year’s list. Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, Quantopian demonstrated its Live Trading platform at FinovateSpring 2013 in San Francisco.