Lighter, the new kid on the block competing against perpetual futures giant Hyperliquid, announced a $68 million round on Tuesday, led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and multi-billion-dollar venture firm Ribbit Capital. The fundraise puts Lighter at a $1.5 billion valuation, according to reporting by Fortune, making it web3’s latest unicorn in a viciously competitive crypto derivatives niche.

Russian-born wonderkid Vladimir Novakovski, officially launched Lighter just a few weeks ago, after beta testing the platform for roughly eight months. “We worked on it for 18 months, launched the testnet last September, and launched the private beta January 19th of this year,” Novakovski explained in an October interview. “And then now, we’re in public mainnet.”

Novakovski, a prodigy who says he graduated from Harvard with an Economics degree at the age of 18, initially raised $21 million from Haun Ventures. He used those funds to build and launch Lighter, and now he wants to go head-to-head with the perpetual futures 400-pound gorilla, Hyperliquid.

(Russian-born wonderkid Vladimir Novakovski, founder and CEO of Lighter, is a prodigy who says he graduated from Harvard with an Economics degree at the age of 18)

And he may just have what it takes. Novakovski was on the U.S. national team for Informatics as well as Physics and won silver medals in both disciplines at the 2001 International Olympiad competition. He did quantitative research at Citadel, a $65 billion hedge fund firm. He led machine learning at Quora, and in 2017, co-founded Lunchclub, an AI-powered social networking platform.

But now, the 40-year-old polymath wants to return to his roots in the world of finance and economics, and with a cumulative $90 million raised, putting Lighter at a $1.5 billion valuation, high-profile investors such as Robinhood and Haun Ventures, are all collectively betting on Novakovski to make waves in the perpetual futures or “perps” ecosystem.

“We @foundersfund are happy to have recently doubled down on @Lighter_xyz,” said Bridget Harris, associate at Founders Fund. “They’ve built an incredible perp trading experience with ultra-low latency, a verifiable security model via zk proofs, and most importantly, a world-class team who we’re continually impressed by.”

• What is Lighter and why is it making headlines?
  Lighter is an Ethereum-based perpetual futures platform that just hit a $1.5 billion valuation after a $68 million raise.
• Who’s backing the project?
  The latest round was led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital, with participation by Robinhood and Haun Ventures.
• Who founded Lighter?
  Russian-born prodigy Vladimir Novakovski, a Harvard Economics graduate and former Citadel researcher, launched it in October.
• What makes Lighter stand out?
  It offers ultra-low-latency perpetuals trading with zk-proof security; aiming to challenge market leader Hyperliquid.

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