Jan 22, 2023

Architect Financial Technologies Inc. announced the closing of a $5M pre-product financing round to develop adaptable infrastructure products that enable institutions to trade across centralized and decentralized digital asset markets. Participants in the round include Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, SV Angel, SALT Fund, P2P, Third Kind Venture Capital, and Motivate Venture Capital, along with investors Shari Glazer and Anthony Scaramucci. Architect will provide institutions and large traders with secure, robust, and customizable trading infrastructure, while interfacing with qualified crypto custodians and self-hosted wallets. The core software product will feature standardized risk, compliance, market data, and development and visualization tools. Through cross-venue aggregation, platform extensibility, and open source design, Architect will enable firms to navigate the evolving technological complexity of digital asset market structure. Architect was founded by financial technologist Brett Harrison, a former executive of FTX US, Citadel Securities, and Jane Street. The funds will be used to build a team of qualified personnel and commence product development, with an initial launch expected in the second quarter of 2023. Harrison commented on the news: “After previously spending eleven years developing algorithmic trading software for global equities and derivatives markets, I understand the technological challenges that current crypto market structure poses to institutions seeking to trade safely at scale. I strongly believe those challenges can be overcome through infrastructure development that prioritizes principles of security, scalability, self-custody, and flexibility.” He further remarked: “My investment partners bring a unique breadth of expertise, spanning digital asset exchange operation, decentralized protocol development, stablecoin issuance, and traditional financial services and trading. I’m extremely excited to work with them and the Architect team to build this company.”