Catalyst, a San Francisco-based fintech startup developing AI-powered trading agents for retail investors, raised $30 million in a seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital.
The round included participation from Jump Trading, Peak XV Partners, Lux Capital, AntiFund, Coinbase and Premji Invest. The funding was announced on October 8, 2026.
Founded in 2025 by Justin Zheng and Dylan Iskandar, Catalyst is building a platform that allows individual investors to translate investment ideas expressed in natural language into executable trading strategies.
The platform uses AI agents to analyze market signals, identify relevant financial instruments, develop trading workflows and backtest strategies against historical data. Users can establish trading parameters and execution limits, with the agents operating within those controls.
Catalyst’s platform covers markets including spot cryptocurrencies, perpetual futures, tokenized stocks and prediction markets. Its trading workflows can incorporate financial market data, news, social activity and sentiment signals. According to the company’s website, the service is available in a research preview.
Before the funding announcement, Catalyst conducted a pilot involving experienced traders. The company said the pilot generated hundreds of millions of dollars in trading volume over several weeks. Catalyst also began admitting users from its waiting list as it worked toward broader availability.
Sequoia Capital announced its investment in Catalyst on October 8, describing the company’s focus on helping individual investors research, construct and execute trading strategies through AI agents.
