Liquid Compute founder Ronit Jain said the company has raised a $15 million seed round and filed applications with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission for designated contract market and derivatives clearing organization status. According to ChainCatcher, the company aims to build the first regulated order book for compute contracts that trade both cash-settled and physically delivered products.
The company said compute is heterogeneous and non-storable, making it more similar to electricity than oil. It plans to first build an efficient short-term market and then support a cash-settled derivatives layer, operating in a manner similar to PJM or ERCOT. In recent months, Liquid Compute has worked with Susquehanna International Group, BGC Group, and Wintermute to provide liquidity and OTC trading for AI startups, neocloud providers, and lenders.
Chemistry and FirstMark Cap co-led the round. K8 Cap, Night Capital, UFO Holdings, TrueBridge CP, Brainchild Holdings, Y Combinator, Dmitry Balyasny, and angel investors from CoreWeave, Jane Street, and OpenAI also participated.