EquiLibre Technologies, a Prague-based AI lab founded by former DeepMind researchers, has reached a $500 million valuation following an undisclosed Series A round led by Creandum. Creandum vice president Cameron Sellers said it was the largest single investment the firm has made in one deal.
Founded by CEO Martin Schmid, CTO Rudolf Kadlec and CSO Matej Moravcik, EquiLibre applies reinforcement learning, the technique behind their earlier poker AI DeepStack, which the trio built as visiting PhD students at DeepMind’s former Edmonton research office, to financial trading. In partnership with quant firm Tower Research Capital, the company’s algorithms now trade billions in daily volume across the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, following earlier deployment in crypto markets, with the company reporting no negative months since inception. Sellers noted trading represents one of the largest addressable markets globally, though EquiLibre describes itself as a research lab rather than a finance firm.
The founders relocated from Canada to their native Czechia to build the company, citing access to a strong local talent network. EquiLibre, which previously raised a $10 million seed round led by Blossom Capital, now plans to expand its compute infrastructure, aiming to build one of the largest computing clusters in Central and Eastern Europe.
