BMLL secures USD 26 million in Series B financing

BMLL, the leading independent provider of harmonized historical Level 3 data and analytics across global equity and futures markets, today announced that it has secured a US$26 million Series B investment in its latest funding round. The round was led by Nasdaq Ventures, FactSet and IQ Capital’s Growth Fund, supported by ACF Investors and other new and existing investors.

BMLL provides historical Level 3 data and analytics to the world’s most sophisticated capital market participants. BMLL clients, including banks, brokers, asset managers, hedge funds and global exchanges, can access BMLL’s order book data and analytics enabling them to derive predictive insights, backtest strategies to generate alpha and gain an understanding of how markets behave themselves.

The investment will help BMLL deliver on its razor-sharp focus on customers’ needs for more data coverage across an increasing number of global markets. The funding will support investments in acquiring new datasets globally; expand BMLL’s technical capabilities to integrate these new data and analytics capabilities into existing products for an ever-growing universe of customers; and build on the existing presence in North America with the opening of an office in New York.

The funding news comes at a time of rapid growth for the company. BMLL has increased its income significantly in the last 12 months; added Tier 1 clients, including investment banks, exchanges, buy-side firms, academics and regulators; extended to the futures market; and launched its flagship BMLL Vantage for stocks and ETFs in the EU and the US.

Paul Humphrey, CEO, BMLL, said: “We are very pleased to have secured $26 million in our Series B funding round. The investment is evidence of the growing need for more sophisticated tools to understand how markets really behave and drive performance. Our detailed Level 3 data and analytics capabilities help market participants unlock the full potential of the predictive power of historical price data and make more informed decisions.”

Gary Offner, senior vice president and head of Nasdaq Ventures, said: “Nasdaq Ventures is committed to investing in financial technology companies that align with our vision to reimagine tomorrow’s markets. By democratizing access to the most detailed data and analytics, all market participants can benefit from BMLL’s solutions, and we are excited to support their continued growth.”

Jonathan Reeve, Executive Vice President, Head of Content and Technology Solutions at FactSet, said: “Data-driven decisions are the lifeblood of our industry and the driving force behind our product development and the collaborations we build. FactSet is pleased to support the growth and success of BMLL, which shares our commitment to empowering the financial community to make more informed investment decisions through access to high-quality data and analytics. We are pleased to invest in BMLL and its order book data and analytics platform, which provides market participants with a detailed understanding of market movements.”

Kerry Baldwin, co-founder, managing partner of IQ Capital: “IQ Capital led BMLL’s seed round and has continued to support the company through the very earliest stages. We have supported and worked closely with BMLL’s exceptional leadership team to develop their ground-breaking Deep Tech product, which democratizes access to Level 3 data for the wider industry. Our latest investment from our growth fund, which supports better performing companies in our portfolio, will drive the company’s continued growth and international expansion.”

Paul Humphrey, CEO of BMLL, concluded: “It has been our mission to democratize access to Level 3 data and analytics capabilities, and the latest funding will support our goal of making these insights available to a wider audience. We are incredibly proud of the outstanding recognition we have received over time, and I would like to thank my team for their unwavering dedication to customer service, our valued customers for their support and our investors for supporting our vision.”

During the last 12 months alone, BMLL has been on an accelerated growth path and secured a number of significant customers and collaborations. BMLL counts the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as a customer, which uses the BMLL Data Lab and BMLL Data Feed to investigate order behaviour. NYU’s Quant Team uses the BMLL Data Lab to research the futures market at the university’s Mathematics in Finance Program. Kepler Cheuvreux’s team performs order book analysis to optimize algo performance using BMLL’s Level 3 data. In addition, BMLL helps Aquis Exchange provide its members with insight into market structure dynamics, while SIX Group uses BMLL data for customized order book analysis for the Swiss EBBO. And Jefferies performs detailed order book analysis for passive / aggressive trading strategies using BMLL data.

Jefferies acted as exclusive financial advisor and Taylor Wessing LLP acted as legal advisor to BMLL in connection with the transaction. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP acted as legal counsel to Nasdaq Ventures and Mills & Reeve LLP acted as legal counsel to FactSet and IQ Capital.