Nordic Capital has agreed to acquire BMLL, a leading independent provider of harmonized historical order book data and analytics for global capital markets. The investment, made in partnership with BMLL’s management team and minority shareholder Optiver, will accelerate BMLL’s expansion and innovation across asset classes and regions.
Founded in 2014 by Cambridge academics, BMLL provides Level 3, 2, and 1 order-book data and analytics for equities, ETFs, futures, and U.S. options. Its proprietary technology standardises raw market data from over 120 trading venues into a unified, analytics-ready format delivered through its cloud-based platform. BMLL’s data is used by banks, hedge funds, asset managers, exchanges, and regulators for research, trading, and compliance—reducing internal engineering complexity and enabling faster insights and performance improvements.
The investment includes a significant primary capital infusion to support BMLL’s next phase of growth. The company plans to expand venue coverage, extend historical depth, and enhance its multi-asset analytics suite. It will also invest in strengthening partnerships with exchanges, market infrastructure providers, and technology platforms. BMLL’s management team, led by CEO Paul Humphrey, will continue to lead the company and remain shareholders.
Nordic Capital’s investment aligns with its focus on Technology & Payments and Financial Services, sectors in which it has built a strong portfolio of category leaders, including ActiveViam, Duco, Itiviti, and Regnology. The acquisition builds on Nordic Capital’s strategy of supporting data-driven innovation within capital markets technology.
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Support: Nordic Capital was advised by UBS, Oliver Wyman, Crisil Coalition Greenwich, and OPCO Advisory. Royal Park Partners advised BMLL.
KEY QUOTES:
“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. 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.”
Paul Humphrey, Chief Executive Officer, BMLL
“With Nordic Capital by our side, along with Optiver, we are excited about BMLL’s future, and the impact we will have on participants’ ability to navigate complex market dynamics globally. We will keep raising the bar for data quality and delivering this data to every corner of the market, enabling firms to focus their expensive quant talent on innovation, not on data cleansing. The leadership team and I are looking forward to the next stage of growth as we deepen BMLL’s data coverage and partnerships worldwide.”
Paul Humphrey, Chief Executive Officer, BMLL
“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.”
David Samuelson, Partner, Nordic Capital Advisors
