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§ Private Profile · Redwood City, CA, USA
Exchange and co-located trading facility, on a chip.
PAX Markets has raised $500K across 1 funding round.
Key people at PAX Markets.
PAX Markets was founded in 2024 by Benjamin Kilimnik (Founder) and Pete Stevenson (Founder / CEO).
PAX Markets has raised $500K in total across 1 funding round.
PAX is a new crypto exchange and is the first – in all capital markets – to operate from a single chip rather than an entire datacenter. PAX moves traders to within nanometers of the exchange – closer than ever before possible.
Such proximity unlocks unprecedented value to high frequency customers and PAX shares this value by offering zero-fee with cash-back to every other market participant on every trade. PAX is to exchange as Robinhood was to retail brokerage: the first in the industry to “go to zero” and a complete game changer across every asset and geography.
PAX founders, Pete and Ben have spent years working as high-frequency traders, from crypto to traditional markets. Having directly experienced the benefit of electronic trading, they share a belief in its potential to further evolve and create better global markets.
PAX Markets has raised $500K across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $500K Seed in March 2025.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 1, 2025 | $500K Seed | — | LombardStreet Ventures, Y Combinator | Announced |
PAX Markets was founded in 2024 by Benjamin Kilimnik (Founder) and Pete Stevenson (Founder / CEO).
PAX Markets has raised $500K in total across 1 funding round.
PAX Markets's investors include LombardStreet Ventures, Y Combinator.
Key people at PAX Markets.
PAX Markets is a revolutionary exchange platform that operates as an exchange and co-located trading facility on a single chip, delivering ultra-low latency trading measured in nanoseconds, far surpassing traditional exchanges like NYSE or Binance[1][2]. It offers zero-fee trading with cash-back rebates on every transaction, democratizing access to high-speed trading for both institutional and retail traders. PAX’s core product is the PAX λ API, which enables traders to execute orders with minimal delay by placing them physically inside the exchange infrastructure, eliminating network latency[1][2].
For an investment firm, PAX Markets represents a mission to transform capital markets by making trading faster, fairer, and more accessible. Its investment philosophy centers on disrupting traditional fee models and infrastructure bottlenecks by embedding exchange technology into hardware. Key sectors include crypto, electronic trading, and fintech infrastructure. PAX’s impact on the startup ecosystem is significant as it pioneers a new paradigm of exchange technology that could inspire innovations in hardware-accelerated financial services and ultra-low-latency trading platforms.
For a portfolio company, PAX builds a hardware-accelerated exchange platform serving market makers, institutional traders, and retail investors. It solves the problem of network latency and high trading fees that disadvantage smaller traders and slow market efficiency. The company shows strong growth momentum by expanding beyond crypto into all electronically traded assets and geographies, leveraging its unique chip-based technology to capture market share from legacy exchanges[2].
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PAX Markets was founded with the vision to radically improve trading speed and cost structures by embedding exchange technology into a single chip rather than relying on large datacenters[2]. The founding team includes experts in high-frequency trading, hardware engineering, and market structure, who recognized that network latency and fee models were fundamental barriers to fair and efficient markets. The idea emerged from the insight that placing trading logic physically inside the exchange could reduce latency from microseconds to nanoseconds, a 1000x improvement over existing platforms[2].
Early traction came from demonstrating the chip’s ability to execute trades faster than any existing exchange and offering zero-fee trading with cash-back rebates, attracting both retail and institutional participants eager for cost savings and speed advantages[1][2].
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PAX Markets rides the trend of hardware acceleration and decentralization in financial technology, addressing the critical market need for speed and cost efficiency in electronic trading. The timing is crucial as markets increasingly demand real-time execution and transparency, and as crypto and digital assets grow in prominence, requiring innovative infrastructure[2].
Market forces favor PAX’s model because traditional exchanges are burdened by legacy infrastructure and fee structures that limit access and efficiency. By embedding exchange logic into a chip, PAX influences the broader ecosystem by setting a new standard for speed, fairness, and cost transparency, potentially reshaping how exchanges and trading platforms operate globally[1][2].
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PAX Markets is poised to expand beyond crypto into all electronically traded asset classes and geographies, leveraging its chip-based technology to capture market share from established exchanges. Future trends shaping its journey include the continued growth of digital assets, demand for ultra-low latency trading, and regulatory shifts favoring transparent, fair market access.
Its influence may evolve from a niche crypto exchange to a foundational technology provider for global capital markets, driving a new era of hardware-accelerated, zero-fee trading. This could democratize market participation further and catalyze innovation in fintech infrastructure, echoing the disruptive impact Robinhood had on retail brokerage but on a broader, more technical scale[2].