Abhi Pingle is a savvy trader. For a year and a half, he worked at Optiver, one of the top high-frequency trading firms. HFT shops employ traders known as quants who are highly skilled in programming and quantitative analysis. Mom-and-pop investors can’t hope to compete with quants’ trading know-how, but Pingle wants to change this. He and his two cofounders, brother Arijit Pingle and TK Kwon, have raised $20 million across two funding rounds to launch Theo, a trading platform that lets users earn money from strategies usually reserved for top-tier HFT firms.
The trio drummed up $4.5 million in March 2024 in a seed round led by Manifold Trading, a quantitative investment firm. And, one year later, the three raised $15.5 million in a second round led by crypto investor Hack VC and Anthos Capital. Other investors in their company include Flowdesk and Selini Capital, as well as individuals from firms like Citadel, JPMorgan, Jane Street, and Optiver.
