EXANTE launches €1M fund to support critical open-source infrastructure

Global prime broker EXANTE has launched Gecko Fund, a €1 million grant programme designed to support open-source software
projects that play a critical role in trading systems, financial data
infrastructure, and broader financial technology ecosystems.

The initiative aims to provide direct funding
to maintainers of widely used but often underfunded open-source technologies,
including APIs, developer tools, core infrastructure libraries, and projects
that support modern financial services.

The launch comes amid growing concerns about
the sustainability of open-source software. While businesses increasingly rely
on open-source technologies, many of the maintainers behind critical projects
continue to operate with limited financial support. This has increased concerns
around software resilience, cybersecurity, and operational risks, particularly
as AI accelerates the discovery and exploitation of vulnerabilities.

Gecko Fund will focus on established
open-source projects that are widely adopted but receive limited funding
relative to their importance. Priority areas include Erlang/OTP, Scala, Java
and JVM technologies, JavaScript, developer tooling, and core infrastructure
software, although applications from other projects relevant to the financial
ecosystem will also be considered.

The programme has already awarded its first
grant, providing €10,000 to Kryo, an open-source Java serialisation framework
widely used in high-performance data processing and trading environments.

Our goal is not simply to fund software. It
is to strengthen the communities and maintainers behind the infrastructure that
modern finance depends on every day. We believe the industry that benefits from
these tools should play a role in sustaining them,

said Anatoly Knyazev, founder of Gecko Fund
and co-founder of EXANTE.

Applications will be reviewed on a quarterly
basis, with grants ranging from €10,000 to €150,000 depending on a project’s
adoption, impact, funding needs, and relevance to the financial sector.
Individuals, project teams, communities, and organisations are eligible to
apply.