Nof1 Bags $15M to Make Trading Models Smarter

AI research lab Nof1 has secured $15 million in funding, co-led by SUI Group and Karatage, to build frontier AI models for live financial markets.

Nof1, an artificial intelligence research lab focused on financial markets, has raised $15 million in fresh funding. The round was co-led by SUI Group Holdings Limited and Karatage Opportunities. The capital will accelerate Nof1’s mission to train frontier AI models capable of competing in live markets.

This funding marks a significant step for the company. Moreover, it signals a broader shift in how institutional investors are approaching AI development.

Nof1 operates Alpha Arena, a first-of-its-kind live benchmark platform. On it, frontier AI models from firms like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI compete in real financial markets using actual capital. Unlike traditional algorithmic trading systems, Nof1 does not rely on backtesting alone.

Nof1 allocated $10,000 to each of eight frontier AI models. Each model then traded autonomously in live markets. The results revealed key gaps and also key opportunities. According to a Nof1 spokesperson, current general-purpose AI models often struggle with hallucinations and the high-stakes volatility of real financial markets. Consequently, the company is now moving into Season 2 with upgraded capabilities.

The fresh capital has a clear purpose. With this $15 million, Nof1 plans to equip its AI models with advanced reasoning, multi-step execution, and real-time web search capabilities. The company also intends to launch a consumer-facing platform aimed at democratizing autonomous trading.

Furthermore, the investment may signal broader corporate adoption. Large companies could eventually deploy Nof1’s technology to automate cash flow forecasting and reduce the manual burden of foreign exchange hedging.

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SUI Group is a Nasdaq-listed company focused on building institutional exposure to the Sui blockchain ecosystem. Karatage is a London-based proprietary hedge fund specializing in digital assets, artificial intelligence, and gaming.

Additionally, SUI Group invested $3 million directly into Nof1. Both investments were made alongside Karatage, with deal structures arranged through Twin Path Ventures. Notably, this is not the only major AI bet the two firms have made together. SUI Group also made a strategic investment in Recursive Superintelligence’s $650 million funding round.

For months, the central question in AI investing has been whether large language models can replace hedge fund managers. That debate is now moving from theory into live markets and Nof1 sits at the center of it.

Both SUI Group and Karatage share a core conviction: autonomous AI agents will become foundational infrastructure for future investment. Companies building training environments for AI today may come to dominate the financial landscape of tomorrow.

As a result, institutional capital is flowing into AI systems that go beyond chatbots. The focus is shifting toward autonomous decision-making systems ones that operate in live economies, in real time.

Disclaimer: This news is based on publicly available information. NervNow has not independently verified any claims.

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