Ember Fund, a trading app that aims to convert your phone into a crypto hedge fund, has raised a $5.3 million seed round.
Announced Wednesday, Ember Fund’s seed round was led by Richard Jun of BAM.VC, with participation from Anthos Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures and Calm Ventures.
The mobile-first app, which raised $700,000 via a registered crowdfunding sale back in May 2020, delivers the type of machine-learning algorithmic trading smarts normally limited to hedge funds and large institutions. The app is non-custodial, meaning you keep hold of the keys to your coins, in keeping with the crypto ethos.
“We take institutional-grade products and use crypto to deliver these to the world,” Ember Fund co-founder Alex Wang said in an interview. “So someone without a bank account in Nigeria can have access to these financial products we’ve built and partnered with hedge funds and quants to create.”
While sophisticated investors such as hedge funds and family offices have been piling into crypto for years, this latest charge of the bulls is being backed by larger institutions as well. That said, it’s usually retail rushing in and small-time investors who end up getting rekt (losing a lot of money, in crypto trading speak).
However, Ember’s suite of hedge fund–style trading options includes algorithms that can level the playing field for retail crypto traders, said Wang, who along with his co-founders Mario Lazaro and Guillaume Torche have a background in AI and machine learning.
Ember’s Quant service allows crypto investors to make the most of upside movements in price, while hedging against losing out as much in the event of a big pull back, he said.
“We are in a bull market right now and everyone is excited,” said Wang. “But retail is notorious for buying high and selling low, so we want to give them the tools and the education and the technology to avoid that.”