Prague AI lab EquiLibre tops $500 million valuation after new funding
A Prague AI lab founded by three DeepMind veterans has topped a $500 million valuation, betting poker-trained algorithms can win in trading.
EquiLibre Technologies, the Prague AI lab founded by three former Google DeepMind researchers, has climbed past a $500 million valuation after fresh funding for its trading business. Martin Schmid, Rudolf Kadlec and Matej Moravcik launched the company in January 2022 after leaving Edmonton, Canada, for Prague, to apply methods built for imperfect-information games to markets.
DeepStack, the poker system associated with Schmid and Moravcik, became the first AI to beat professional players in heads-up no-limit Texas hold’em. EquiLibre is applying the same reinforcement-learning and game-theory techniques to algorithmic trading in stocks and crypto.
Schmid said in 2022 that EquiLibre had raised the largest seed round ever in the Czech Republic, though he did not disclose the amount. By March 2025, EquiLibre said it had raised $10 million in a new round led by Blossom Capital and had a valuation in the billions of Czech crowns. At the time, it said it had about 20 AI engineers and was recruiting in the Czech Republic and abroad.
In late 2023, it agreed an exclusive partnership with Tower Research Capital, and Tower’s chief investment officer, John Cogman, said the New York market maker would use EquiLibre’s algorithms as one of several independent signal sources.
Reinforcement learning can be powerful in settings with clear rules, repeated feedback and measurable outcomes, which is why poker has become such a rich proving ground for AI researchers. Trading is messier: markets shift when strategies become crowded, and profits can vanish as soon as an edge is discovered. EquiLibre says its systems can keep learning, and the company says its models now trade billions of dollars every day.
PitchBook data place EquiLibre as Prague-based and venture-capital backed, with a financing round dated Feb. 12, 2026. Schmid told a Charles University audience in Prague in 2025 that the company was using self-learning AI techniques from games to revolutionize stock trading.
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