Lucas Schuermann (30), CEO of Variational, which runs the derivatives transaction platform Omni, began studying mathematics at Oklahoma State University, a top U.S. university, at age 12. At 15, he moved to Columbia University in the Ivy League, double-majored in computer science and mathematics, and graduated with grades in the top 1%.
Variational is Schuermann's second company. After stints at Google and Goldman Sachs, Schuermann and his Columbia dormmate Edward Yu founded the quant trading company Qu Capital in 2017. The company was sold to Genesis Trading under Digital Currency Group (DCG) two years after its founding.
Schuermann is also working with Edward Yu at Variational. Schuermann said, "We will make Omni a platform that can handle 'all assets with quoted prices,' including stocks, virtual assets, and real-world assets (RWA)." His goal is to break down the boundaries created by traditional finance handling diverse assets on separate platforms.
Schuermann introduces his roots as a researcher. He said that the various hardware and software skills he learned as a university researcher—such as computer programming and Machine Learning—became the foundation of who he is now and of the company.
Omni is currently operated in a closed manner so that only those who receive an invitation code can use it. Even so, it is a hit, recording a maximum average daily transaction volume of $1.25 billion (1.92 trillion won) and an accumulated transaction volume of $200 billion (about 307 trillion won). Weekly active users exceed 20,000.
Variational last month raised $50 million (about 77 billion won) in Series A funding five years after its founding. Schuermann said, "We will launch the official service as early as July, along with support for transactions in about 100 real-world assets." The following is a Q&A with Schuermann.
─What does it mean to have raised $50 million in Series A?
"It proves that the industry has considerable confidence in the potential of a platform like Omni. It is encouraging that we received a very large investment at a time when the virtual asset and related industries are facing difficulties. Since Omni supports not only virtual assets but also RWA transactions, I think the fact that both users and the company have a hedging (Hedging·eliminating price fluctuation risk) tool worked meaningfully."
─Isn't it technically difficult to trade various assets such as coins or RWAs on a single platform?
"If we had approached it by creating a new order book (order book) corresponding to each newly listed asset, Omni would not exist. Even if you create order books one by one, it is useless if users do not transact within those order books. For this reason, we chose a 'broker model,' signing agreements with traditional financial firms and displaying their order books on Omni. Technically, Omni has to show multiple order books as one, and building a system that reconciles those numbers was extremely difficult."
─It seems it would have been hard to persuade traditional financial firms.
"It was in fact the most difficult part of the business. Early on, we leaned fully into the company's narrative—the direction Omni aimed to go and its potential. After daily transaction volume rose to around 2 trillion won, agreements began to take place more actively. I can't disclose exact names, but we have agreements with major financial institutions based in New York and Chicago in the United States and in Amsterdam in the Netherlands."
─You need an invitation code to use Omni. Why take a closed approach?
"The quality of feedback is different. With a closed approach, short-term metrics are not good, but we judged that we could raise the platform's completeness by receiving detailed feedback from people who really wanted to try Omni. 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?
"We are of course considering launching Omni in Korea. Korean people are open to investment and have high understanding. Interest in virtual assets and stocks is high, and related news comes out 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 of the Korean financial authorities a risk factor?
"I think it is important for regulations to be clear. This is especially true in finance. The United States is by no means lax in financial regulation. Specific and clear regulations actually help the industry innovate."