Frequently asked questions

Gecko Fund is a funding initiative designed to support the people who build and maintain the open-source infrastructure that modern finance depends on. It is not an investment vehicle or a charity, but a pragmatic commitment to infrastructure maintenance. Read our full Manifesto to understand our core beliefs.

Gecko Fund was created and is initially funded by EXANTE. Our engineers realized that nearly 70% of the critical stack we rely on every day was built and maintained by unpaid or under-resourced contributors. We created Gecko Fund to bridge this gap and support these maintainers directly.

We believe the industry that benefits from this infrastructure should be the one that helps pay to maintain it.

Individuals, projects, groups, communities, or organisations working on open-source software can apply. The application can be for a specific project or for an entity representing multiple open-source efforts. The applicant or their legal entity must be able to receive funds through a bank account with the necessary documentation.

We focus on supporting existing, widely used, and impactful projects that contribute to the sustainability and advancement of critical infrastructure. Very new projects or projects with minimal adoption are not considered at this time.

To be considered for a grant, your project should meet the following criteria:

• Critical infrastructure - the project is widely used and serves as foundational technology, particularly within the financial sector (e.g. trading systems, APIs, data infrastructure).
• Tech stack focus - we currently prioritise projects within Erlang/OTP, Scala, the JVM ecosystem, JavaScript, and core developer tooling.
• Open source - the project must be published under an OSI-approved open-source licence.
• Need for support - the project or its maintainers are currently underfunded relative to their impact and usage.

We offer three grant bands to accommodate different needs and project sizes:

• Small - €10,000 to €25,000
• Standard - €25,000 to €75,000
• Strategic - €75,000 to €150,000

We review applications on a quarterly cycle (Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4), with our inaugural cycle launching in Q2. Applicants can expect a defined response window of approximately eight weeks after the quarter closes.

Fill out the application form with details about your project, the funding you are requesting, and how the funds would be used. Our team will review your submission and follow up via email.

Our internal committee evaluates applications on a quarterly cycle using broad criteria including value to the finance ecosystem, real-world impact, criticality of the software, level of current funding, and the potential for meaningful improvement with additional support.

We particularly favour projects where a relatively modest contribution can have outsized impact - single-maintainer libraries, underfunded core tools, and infrastructure that is silently depended upon across the industry.

We ask that you consider a public acknowledgement with a link to this website so others can discover the fund. Beyond that, we trust you to use the funding in the way that best serves your project and its community.

Write to us at info@geckofund.org.