The Sci-Fi Quants Dominating Europe’s Most Volatile Power Market

In the span of five years, Second Foundation has come from nowhere to dominate Europe’s most volatile power market, driven by algorithms and riddle-loving mathletes raised on science fiction and the ideas of American author Isaac Asimov.

The Prague-based company is now one of the biggest traders in Europe’s intraday market, where contracts are bought and sold almost in real time to match constantly shifting, renewable electricity supply. Once a niche corner left to the most junior traders, it’s now the fastest growing segment where gaining even a millisecond can give you an edge.

Second Foundation’s three founders draw inspiration from science fiction where elite mathematical minds shape civilization and artificial intelligence is boundless. The company itself takes its name from the third book in Asimov’s Foundation series, and each new employee is presented with a copy.

In Asimov’s foundation saga, the brightest scientists are gathered on a single planet called Terminus. (One of the meeting rooms at Second Foundation is named after that planet.) In the book, a smaller secretive group known as the Second Foundation who can control people’s minds exist on another planet, led by a powerful character called the First Speaker.