Source: Fortune
Summary
Vest Labs, a New York-based startup, raised $13 million in a seed round led by Portal Ventures. The company offers traders access to real market capital in perpetual futures, sharing profits rather than charging fees. Unlike traditional prop firms, Vest lets traders keep up to 80% of their earnings. The firm plans to use the funding to expand its mobile app and trading options. The retail prop trading industry is growing, with projected revenue of $850 million in 2026. Vest claims 26% of its 27,000 traders have received cash payouts.
Our Reading
The numbers tell one story.
Vest raised $13 million to scale a model that shares profits with traders.
Traditional firms charge fees, Vest gives capital and takes a cut of profits.
Traders keep 80% of what they make, Vest gets the rest.
Profit alignment is the key, not fee-based extraction.
Author: Evan Null
Vest’s Campus Roots
Justin Ma, 25, became interested in crypto derivatives while studying finance and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. There, he became close friends and roommates with Rikuya Takatsu, whom he described as a “human calculator,” and Maximilian Tsiang.
During their junior year in 2021, as early crypto perpetual trading platforms gained attention, the three began to study how exchanges worked. Ma said they believed the pricing systems used by some early decentralized trading platforms were mathematically flawed and set out to address those problems.
That year, Ma dropped out after building and selling Berri, a consumer trading app that he said reached 100,000 users and was sold within months. The trio spent months together in a house designing algorithms to improve how exchanges support trading.
Ma used the proceeds from Berri’s sale to begin high-frequency crypto trading and lay the groundwork for Vest, starting with an open-source research forum where he published papers on how exchanges work and trades are executed.
At a University of Pennsylvania alumni event during the Stanford Blockchain Conference in 2024, Ma met Catrina Wang, a fellow alumna and general partner at Portal Ventures. He pitched Vest to her for the first time, beginning a conversation that ultimately led to the startup’s seed round.
Profit Alignment as a Differentiator
For Wang, Vest’s appeal is its ability to reach traders with more ambition than money, giving them access to company capital rather than requiring them to fund their own accounts.
“Overall, when it comes to customer onboarding, that funded account [and] the fact that you don’t need to take your own money, you just trade capital and make money… is super differentiated,” she said.
Vest’s model contrasts with traditional prop firms that charge fees and filter out most applicants through simulated trading evaluations.
The company claims 26% of its 27,000 traders have received cash payouts as of late September, with monthly active traders and trading volume surging over 300% month-over-month.
Its approach is gaining traction in a growing industry, where Track360 estimates the retail prop trading sector will reach $850 million in revenue by 2026.
Traditional Models vs. Vest’s Approach
Under the standard model, qualifying for rewards requires traders to pay an upfront fee for a simulated evaluation of their skills—a hurdle that filters out the majority of applicants.
Even for those who pass, collecting a payout is far from guaranteed. Topstep, a futures prop-trading firm, disclosed in March that roughly 17% of evaluations started in 2025 were successfully completed.
Among the minority who reached funded status, only one-third ever received a payout, highlighting the challenges of traditional prop trading models.
Vest’s model is gaining traction, offering traders access to real capital without upfront fees and sharing profits rather than taking a fixed cut.
The company’s approach aligns its success with that of its traders, a contrast to traditional firms that profit regardless of trader performance.
The Growing Retail Prop Trading Industry
Retail proprietary trading is a growing business. Track360, a financial software firm that tracks industry metrics, estimates the sector’s revenue will reach $850 million in 2026, up about 45% from its estimate for the previous year.
Last month, London-based financial services firm CMC Markets became the latest company to move into retail prop trading when it announced a partnership-backed program that offers cash rewards based on simulated trading performance.
Traditional models rely on simulated trading accounts, where firms profit whether users succeed or fail. Vest, however, lets traders use company money to trade in real markets, sharing profits rather than betting against them.
The company’s approach is attracting attention, with a $13 million seed round led by Portal Ventures and participation from high-profile backers like Citadel Securities, BlackRock, and KKR.
Vest’s model is reshaping the industry by aligning incentives and offering traders a path to real capital without upfront fees.
Founder Background and Vision
Justin Ma, Vest’s CEO, became interested in crypto derivatives during his time at the University of Pennsylvania. He and his co-founders, Rikuya Takatsu and Maximilian Tsiang, began exploring trading platforms and their pricing systems during their junior year in 2021.
Ma dropped out of Penn to build and sell Berri, a consumer trading app that reached 100,000 users. He used the proceeds to start high-frequency crypto trading and laid the groundwork for Vest.
Vest began as an open-source research forum where Ma published papers on how exchanges work and trades are executed. This research formed the basis for the company’s trading model.
At a University of Pennsylvania alumni event in 2024, Ma met Catrina Wang, a general partner at Portal Ventures, and pitched Vest, leading to the company’s seed round.
Wang described Vest’s model as “super differentiated” due to its focus on funded accounts and access to company capital, rather than requiring traders to use their own money.
