Lucas Schuermann (30), CEO of Variational, which operates the derivatives transaction platform "Omni," began studying mathematics at the University of Oklahoma, a top U.S. university, at age 12. At 18, he moved to Columbia University in the Ivy League to major in computer science with a minor in applied mathematics, and graduated with grades in the top 1%.
Variational is Schuermann's second company. After stints at Google and Goldman Sachs, Schuermann founded the quant trading firm "Qu Capital" in 2017 with Columbia dormmate Edward Yoo. The company was acquired by Genesis Trading under Digital Currency Group (DCG) two years after its founding.
He is working with Edward Yoo at Variational as well. Schuermann said, "We will make Omni a platform that can handle 'all assets with market prices,' including stocks, virtual assets, and real-world assets (RWA)." Schuermann's goal is to break down the boundaries created by traditional finance handling different assets on separate platforms.
Schuermann describes his roots as a researcher. The hardware and software abilities he learned as a university research fellow, such as computer programming and Machine Learning, became the foundation of who he is today and of the company.
Omni is currently run as a closed service, available only to those who receive an invite code. Even so, it is gaining traction, recording a maximum average daily transaction volume of $1.25 billion (1.92 trillion won) and an accumulated transaction volume of $250 billion (about 384 trillion won). Weekly active users exceed 20,000.
Variational raised $50 million in a Series A round last month, five years after its founding. Schuermann said, "As early as July, we will launch the official service along with support for transaction in about 100 real-world assets." The following is a Q&A with Schuermann.
─What does it mean to have raised $50 million in the Series A round?
"It proves that the industry has considerable confidence in the potential of the Omni platform. It is encouraging that we secured a very large amount of investment at a time when the virtual asset and related industries are facing difficulties. Since Omni supports RWA transaction as well as virtual assets, I think the fact that both users and the company have a hedging (removal of price fluctuation risk) tool worked meaningfully."
─Isn't it technically difficult to trade multiple assets such as coins and RWAs on a single platform?
"If we had approached listing new assets by creating a new order book (quote board) for each one, Omni would not exist. Even if you create order books one by one, it is useless if users do not transact within that order book. For this reason, we chose a 'broker model' in which we sign agreements with existing financial firms and display their order books on Omni. Technically, we have to show multiple order books as one on Omni, and building a system to reconcile those numbers was extremely difficult."
─It seems it would have been hard to persuade existing financial firms.
"It was indeed the most difficult task from a business standpoint. Early on, we went all-in on appealing the company's narrative—the direction and potential of the Omni platform. As daily transaction volume grew to around 2 trillion won, agreements began to proceed more actively. I cannot disclose exact names, but we are signing agreements with large financial institutions based in New York and Chicago in the United States and in Amsterdam in the Netherlands."
─You need an invite code to use Omni. Why take a closed approach?
"The quality of feedback is different. A closed method may hurt short-term metrics, but we judged that by receiving detailed feedback from people who truly wanted to try Omni, we could raise the platform's completeness. As a result, our strategy succeeded and we were able to open the official service faster than expected."
─You must be considering entering Korea as well. What is your view of the Korean market?
"Of course we are considering launching Omni in Korea. Korean people are open to investing and have a high level of understanding. Interest in virtual assets and stocks is high, and related news appears daily. Overseas virtual asset exchanges and global financial institutions all recognize this. Korea is an extremely important market."
─From the perspective of a global operator, aren't the strong regulations by the financial authorities in Korea a risk factor?
"I think it is important for regulation to be clear. This is especially true in finance. The United States is by no means lax in financial regulation. Specific and clear regulation actually helps innovation in the industry."