EXANTE has launched a €1 million fund to support critical open-source projects powering financial systems, addressing growing concerns over software sustainability, cybersecurity, and resilience.
Global prime broker EXANTE has launched Gecko Fund, a €1 million grant programme aimed at supporting critical open-source software projects that underpin trading systems, financial data infrastructure, and broader financial technology ecosystems.
The initiative comes as concerns grow over the sustainability of open-source software, which forms the backbone of many modern technology and financial services platforms.
While businesses increasingly rely on open-source technologies, maintainers of many critical projects continue to operate with limited financial support, creating potential risks related to software resilience, cybersecurity, and operational stability. The challenge is becoming more pressing as AI accelerates the discovery and exploitation of software vulnerabilities.
Gecko Fund will provide direct funding to maintainers of widely adopted but underfunded open-source technologies, including APIs, developer tools, core infrastructure libraries, and software that enables modern financial services.
The programme will prioritise established projects that are critical to financial infrastructure yet receive limited funding relative to their importance. Focus areas include Erlang/OTP, Scala, Java and JVM technologies, JavaScript, developer tooling, and core infrastructure software, although other open-source projects relevant to the financial ecosystem will also be considered.
The fund 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 quarterly, with grants ranging from €10,000 to €150,000. Individual maintainers, project teams, communities, and organisations are eligible to apply.
