Stockholm-headquartered Nordic Capital has agreed to acquire BMLL – an independent provider of harmonised historical order book data and analytics – in a deal that marks a major step forward for the Cambridge-founded company.
The deal, made in close partnership with BMLL’s management team and minority shareholder Optiver, is set to accelerate the firm’s next phase of growth.
It will also aim to strengthen the company’s mission to provide the market’s most trusted source of high-quality, analytics-ready data across major exchange-traded asset classes.
Founded in 2014 by Cambridge academics, BMLL delivers granular Level 1, 2 and 3 order book data and analytics covering global equities, ETFs, futures and US options.
Its data engineering process looks to standardise raw, inconsistent data from more than 120 trading venues into a single, harmonised format.
Through its cloud-based platform, clients including banks, hedge funds, asset managers and exchanges can access AI and analytics-ready data ‘out of the box’, reducing the need for in-house engineering and speeding up insights.
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“We’ve spent the past decade investing in our award-winning data engineering capabilities and building the industry’s foundational layer of harmonised order book data,” said Paul Humphrey, CEO of BMLL.
“The greatest testament and validation of our work is the fact that market participants are now building increasingly sophisticated workflows on top of our data.
“I am extremely proud of everything our team has delivered over the years, cementing our position as the de-facto historical data and analytics provider to the capital markets.
“Their hard work and unwavering commitment to excellence has made us the category creator and leader we are today.”
The business now plans to extend its global venue coverage, grow multi-asset capabilities and enhance historical depth.
David Samuelson, partner at Nordic Capital Advisors, added: “BMLL stands out for the precision, transparency and insight it brings to market participants.
“Nordic Capital sees a clear opportunity to invest in content, analytics and partnerships that extend BMLL’s reach globally, helping more firms harness the power of harmonised, high-quality data.
“Leveraging Nordic Capital’s long-standing expertise in capital markets software and data, we will work closely with Paul and his team to seek to expand BMLL’s footprint, elevate the product and analytics offering, and scale distribution and partnerships.”
Financial details of the transaction have not been disclosed. Nordic Capital was advised by UBS, Oliver Wyman, Crisil Coalition Greenwich and OPCO Advisory, while BMLL was advised by Royal Park Partners.