London trading firm LO:TECH secures $5 million seed round, plans broader on-chain capital markets push

The London-based digital asset trading firm LO:TECH has raised $5 million in a seed round led by 13books Capital, funding that the company says will accelerate its ambition to build unified, high-frequency infrastructure for the on-chain capital markets of the near future. Other investors included Lightspeed Faction, Veris Ventures, CRIT Ventures USA, and angel investors Mark Ransford and Rodney Ngone.

LO:TECH said the capital will be used to expand its high-frequency trading stack into a broader suite of services. The firm plans to add agency execution and OTC trading to its existing market data and liquidity provision services, describing the raise as the next step in its development as a trading firm built for the coming movement of capital markets activity on to blockchain rails.

“LO:TECH was founded with the ambition of building unified, high-frequency trading infrastructure that would operate seamlessly across centralised, DeFi and TradFi venues,” said Tim Meggs, CEO of LO:TECH. “A year after coming out of stealth, we’ve validated our approach by standing up a number of revenue-producing business lines, all built on top of this core infrastructure. This investment round, led by 13books Capital - a leading UK fintech venture investor - is particularly exciting as it allows us to power on to the next stage of our evolution, expanding our activity to include more on-chain capital markets services, including agency execution and OTC trading.”

The raise comes alongside LO:TECH’s efforts to promote greater transparency in digital asset markets. Last week the company published its State of Crypto Market Making 2025 report, which highlighted distrust of liquidity providers across the crypto community. Surveying more than 2,000 participants from 98 countries, the research found that 52% said they do not trust market makers, and 70% said they would prosecute them for their impact on the ecosystem. LO:TECH said the principles of real-time visibility outlined in the report are being extended into its broader product roadmap.

Lead investor 13books Capital has a track record of backing fintech and infrastructure startups. Partner Michael McFadgen said LO:TECH’s first-principles approach was a key factor in the decision to lead the round.

“We invested in LO:TECH because they’re rebuilding capital markets infrastructure from first principles: fast, transparent, and fully on-chain,” McFadgen said. “In a fragmented and often opaque industry, their focus on improving performance and transparency in token market making is a real differentiator. As institutions enter the space, LO:TECH is laying the rails that will power the next generation of crypto markets and services.”