Crypto Asset Software Firm Lukka Hits Unicorn Status After $110M Series E

key takeaways

Lukka provides services to both traditional financial firms and cryptocurrency companies including Arca, Circle, CPA.com, eToro, IHS Markit, S&P Dow Jones Indices and State Street
The investment comes nine months after its last funding round of $53 million

Crypto asset software and data provider Lukka closed its $110 million Series E, valuing it at over $1.3 billion, the company’s CEO Robert Materazzi exclusively told Blockworks on Friday.

“There’s a ton of momentum in the crypto industry as a whole, and Lukka’s at the center of that,” he said. “We’re expanding globally very quickly here,” he added.

The funding will be used to accelerate Lukka’s growth and expansion strategy through creating new offices internationally. At the end of 2021, it opened up offices in Switzerland and Singapore, Materazzi noted.

“Our team almost tripled its headcount in the last year, but we’re not done,” he said. “We will have a lot of further headcount growth in global locations and will continue to build out,” he added.

The capital raise was led by London-based hedge fund Marshall Wace, which specializes in alternative investment strategies. Additional investors include Miami International Holdings, Summer Capital, SiriusPoint Ltd., as well as participation from its previous Series D investors Soros Fund Management, Liberty City Ventures, S&P Global and CPA.com.

The investment comes nine months after its last funding round of $53 million. In total, the company has raised about $210 million, Materazzi said.

Lukka’s software compiles data of over 16,000 crypto spot assets, 70,000 crypto derivatives, 300 exchanges and about 30 decentralized exchanges. It provides services to both traditional financial firms and cryptocurrency companies including Arca, Circle, CPA.com, eToro, IHS Markit, S&P Dow Jones Indices and State Street.

“We help them solve the most complex data challenges in the world and those challenges are more and more present with all the innovation going on in crypto,” Materazzi said.

“It’s really challenging to keep up with innovation but that’s our goal and make sure we can simplify all those other data processes that results from all the innovation that’s constant,” he added.

Last year, a lot of organizations, from businesses like Nike to traditional financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, began to immerse themselves into crypto as it gained mainstream attention. But, Materazzi suspects that the companies that were quiet last year, were probably busy working on private plans they’ll share this year. “We’re going to see industry by industry adopt crypto in different ways,” he said.

Going forward, Lukka will release more “thoughtful institutional data products, in addition to ones launched last year,” to grow upon its existing data services, Materazzi shared. “At the end of the day, software is about managing data thoughtfully,” he commented.

“Data is powering the world — and everything we’re doing here is driven by data,” Materazzi said.

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