NYC-based Quantbase raises $500k pre-seed to make smart high-risk investing effortless
Summary
The round included participation from Witz Ventures (founded by Christian Blackwell and finance content creator Austin Hankwitz, with over 600k followers), Dorm Room Fund, Trolley Ventures, Soleil Capitale, YC alumni, and Thirdline Capital head Larry Eiben, among others. Part of the new funding will be used to extend the startup’s crypto portfolio offering, letting the company go toe-to-toe with full-scale retail platforms like Vanguard. The startup, currently headquartered on Wall St, was founded in 2021 by Thomas Stewart (serial founder with multiple exits under his belt) and Som Mohapatra (quant trader and portfolio manager), who first met at the University of Virginia. I’d gotten a lot of initial signals from Hacker News and Reddit, where I hang out, and Som was taking his classes pass-fail to focus on building a stock exchange for financializing opinion. We met, realized it was a perfect fit after a few weeks of working together, and have been going strong since.” The founders are young - Stewart a recent grad, and Mohapatra on leave from university - but have proven their prowess and wit.