BMLL Technologies hires new CEO

Paul Humphrey joins BMLL to expand the business and realise its ambition to democratise access to granular market data and analytical products at speed and scale

Data engineering and analytics firm BMLL Technologies has appointed Paul Humphrey, a senior leader with decades of experience across brokerage, banking, data and exchange, as its new chief executive officer.

Humphrey has joined BMLL to expand the business and realise its ambition to democratise access to granular market data and analytical products at speed and scale.

Johannes Sulzberger, the departing chief executive officer, will remain on the BMLL board as a non-executive director.

Humphrey most recently established his own consultancy business, advising financial institutions, boards and fintech firms on their corporate and growth strategies.

He previously served as global head of fixed income, currencies, and commodities at Euronext NV and interim chief executive officer of Euronext London.

Humphrey has also held roles at Tullett Prebon, ABN Amro NV, Van der Moolen, SLK/Goldman Sachs and ICAP.

This month, BMLL closed its latest funding round, in which the firm raised $25 million from investors including Oceanwood, venture capital firm IQ Capital and investment fund Angel CoFund.

The funding and appointment of Humphrey come on the back of the launch of Platometrics, the new market quality metrics tool offering a consolidated overview of European liquidity across lit, dark/grey, bilateral and non-addressable trades.

Platometrics was launched in partnership with Plato Partnership, a not-for-profit company working to improve the European equities marketplace. It counts BlackRock, Fidelity International, Norges Bank Investment Management, Barclays, Bank of Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and other financial services and banking firms as members.

Humphrey commented: “I am delighted to be joining BMLL at such an exciting time for the business. To receive the backing of Oceanwood, IQ Capital and Angel CoFund is clear evidence that the demand for quality market metrics and analytics to make sense of market trends and drive performance for market participants has never been more important.”

“I look forward to working alongside our investors and our market leading clients. I am also tremendously proud to lead BMLL’s extremely experienced and capable management team to continue to scale our business and build on our success to date.”

Lee Hodgkinson, chairman of BMLL, added: “I am very excited that Paul has joined the BMLL management team. I have known and worked with Paul for a number of years; his deep market expertise, insights and leadership are set to accelerate BMLL’s mission to bring deeper data transparency and analytics to capital markets participants, to help them make more informed decisions.”

Commenting on BMLL’s fundraise, Kerry Baldwin, managing partner at IQ Capital, said: “At IQ Capital, we invest in thought leaders bringing new technologies and approaches to the market. BMLL is unique in the capital markets space; their data analytics capabilities are front and centre to any market participant looking for alpha generating ideas and a competitive edge.”

“We have been very impressed with the deep expertise of the technology team and their understanding of the technological challenges in this space. They have created a unique solution to one of the biggest challenges faced in capital markets. We are proud to be investing in BMLL and working with them to rapidly scale their business.”

Image: BMLL

Mark Dugdale