Following its acquisition earlier this year (along with other private equity investors) of UK online broker Hargreaves Lansdown, Stockholm-based Nordic Capital has announced an agreement to acquire BMLL, a leading independent provider of harmonized historical order book data and analytics.
The investment will be made in close collaboration with BMLL’s management team and minority shareholder Optiver, signaling a shared commitment to accelerate the company’s next phase of growth. Specifically, the investment will advance BMLL’s mission to provide the reliable market baseline with high-quality, analysis-ready historical data across all major exchange-traded asset classes.
The parties agreed not to disclose the financial details of the transaction.
BMLL Overview
Founded in 2014 by Cambridge academics and based in London, BMLL provides the most detailed Level 3, 2 and 1 order book data and analytics covering global equities, ETFs, futures and US options. BMLL’s highly rigorous and proprietary engineering process cleans, standardizes and consolidates raw and inconsistent market data from over 120 venues into a single, globally consistent format. This enables banks, asset managers, hedge funds, exchanges and other market participants to easily access and analyze the deepest market view available for research, trading, analysis and compliance. Delivered through our cloud-native product suite, it provides analytics-enabled data and AI out-of-the-box that eliminates the need for complex in-house data engineering, thereby accelerating insights, improving performance and boosting ROI. BMLL sets a new standard for data quality across the market.
Paul Humphrey, CEO of BMLL said,
“We’ve spent the past decade investing in our award-winning data engineering capabilities and building the industry’s foundational level of harmonized order book data. The greatest proof and validation of our work is the fact that market participants are now building increasingly sophisticated workflows on top of our data. I’m extremely proud of everything our team has delivered on our position in historical data and data. capital markets and unwavering commitment to excellence has made us the creator and category leader we are today.”
New chapter at BMLL
The investment from Nordic Capital includes a substantial seed capital injection into BMLL, providing long-term funding to support continued investment, innovation and customer delivery. BMLL said it intends to use this investment to further expand global venue coverage, expand historical depth and develop multi-asset class capabilities, giving the market a differentiated alternative to incumbent market data providers. This initiative represents a commitment to creating the trusted “golden copy” of high-quality, AI-ready historical market data that enables market participants to make better data-driven decisions throughout the trade lifecycle, from alpha generation to execution analytics.
With the support of Nordic Capital, BMLL will also seek to strengthen its go-to-market capabilities and deepen ecosystem partnerships with exchanges, technology platforms and market infrastructure providers. The existing management team, led by CEO Paul Humphrey, will continue to lead the business and remain a shareholder, ensuring continuity for customers, partners and employees as the company enters its next phase of growth.
Humphrey added,
“With Nordic Capital on our side, along with Optiver, we are excited about the future of BMLL and the impact it will have on our participants’ ability to navigate complex market dynamics globally. We will continue to raise the bar for data quality and deliver that data to every corner of the market, enabling companies to focus on valuable talent them in cleanliness and development. we’re deepening BMLL’s data coverage and partnerships worldwide.”
David Samuelson, Partner at Nordic Capital Advisors said,
“BMLL stands out for the accuracy, 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 companies harness the power of harmonized, high-quality data. Leveraging its long-standing team Nordic Capital, Paul leverages his long-standing software team and expertise. expand BMLL’s footprint, upgrade product and analytics offerings, and scale distribution and partnerships.”
Technology & Payments is one of Nordic Capital’s core focus areas, supported by a dedicated team of Nordic Capital Advisors, deep industry network and long track record of industry-leading companies. Nordic Capital has consistently led growth and innovation in financial software and data-driven technology, with deep experience in both the Technology & Payments and Financial Services sectors. Notable investments include ActiveViam, boost.ai, Duco, Itiviti, Macrobond, Regnology, Signicat, Trustly and Zafin, among others.
Nordic Capital was advised by UBS, Oliver Wyman, Crisil Coalition Greenwich and OPCO Advisory.
BMLL was briefed by Royal Park Partners.
About Nordic Capital
Nordic Capital is a leading international private equity investor and sub-sector specialist, dedicated to building stronger, more sustainable businesses through operational improvement and transformative long-term growth in partnership with management teams. With more than 35 years of experience, a global reach and a local presence of specialist investment teams in Sweden, the UK, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland and the US, Nordic Capital brings deep expertise to its core investment areas: Healthcare, Technology & Payments, Financial Services and Services & Industrial Technology. Leveraging tailored playbooks, a dedicated operations advisory team and a global network of industry and operational experts, Nordic Capital seeks to help companies scale, innovate and become sustainable leaders.
Nordic Capital currently manages approximately EUR 34 billion in assets and since its founding in 1989, has invested approximately EUR 30 billion in more than 150 mid-market companies in Northern Europe and North America. Committed capital is mainly provided by global institutional investors such as pension funds.
About BMLL
Founded in 2014, BMLL is a leading independent provider of clean, normalized and harmonized historical data and Level 3, 2 and 1 order book analytics for the world’s most sophisticated capital market participants, covering global equities, ETFs and US equity futures and options. Its cloud-native platform enables market participants to access data ready for analysis to understand market behavior, accelerate research, optimize trading strategies and generate alpha more predictably.