QFEX, an on-chain platform for perpetual contracts on traditional assets, has closed a $9.5 million seed round. General Catalyst led the investment, with participation from Y Combinator, Paul Graham, Nexus Venture Partners, Moonfire VC, Goodwater Capital, Liquid 2 Ventures, 468 Capital, and Ritual VC.
Platform Overview
QFEX operates as a hybrid exchange enabling perpetual futures trading on assets like US stocks, indices, commodities, and forex. It runs 24/7 using a centralized limit order book and supports leverage up to 50x, with fiat and crypto deposits. The platform relies on external market makers for off-hours trading and includes features such as low-latency execution and protections against high-frequency trading arbitrage.
Team Background
Founders Annanay Kapila and Joshua Wharton hold degrees in mathematics from Cambridge University. Kapila worked at Flow Traders’ crypto team and as a quant at Tower Research Capital, while Wharton was an engineer at Citadel. Other team members come from Jump Trading, Jane Street, Optiver, and similar firms.
Investor Details
General Catalyst, through partner Yuri Sagalov, took the lead position. The firm focuses on early-stage tech investments, including fintech and infrastructure plays. Participants include Y Combinator, an accelerator known for backing fintech and crypto startups, and Paul Graham, its co-founder with a history in software and venture. Others like Nexus Venture Partners and Goodwater Capital target enterprise software and consumer internet sectors.
Recent DeFi and infra funding includes Bluprynt Secures $4.25 Million in seed for crypto compliance tools backed by Coinbase Ventures and Robinhood, and t54 Labs Raises $5M in seed led by Anagram and Franklin Templeton for AI agent infrastructure.
Sector Trends
Funding in DeFi derivatives persists amid a selective venture environment for crypto infrastructure. Hybrid TradFi-crypto platforms align with broader flows into real-world asset tokenization and 24/7 markets, though volumes remain modest compared to pure crypto perps.
