Matt Barrett, CEO, Adaptive
Adaptive Financial Consulting, the specialist global electronic trading consultancy, has acquired Real Logic, a low-latency trading technology development firm, The TRADE can exclusively reveal.
The deal is a strategic move for Adaptive, as it brings on board both Aeron and Aeron Cluster: open-source software used by financial firms globally and which underpin Adaptive’s development platform, Hydra Platform. This should boost the firm’s ability to deliver bespoke, low latency trading systems that can manage significant throughput, and accelerate the delivery and build of new trading solutions. Aeron and Hydra will be consolidated to become the same technology stack, with clients of each respective firm continuing to have access to their existing development teams, giving Adaptive substantially greater scale.
“Financial services firms are increasingly realising that relying on third parties for trading technology is no longer enough to compete,” Adaptive CEO Matt Barrett told The TRADE.
“Our acquisition of Real Logic helps us to go further in meeting this demand by bringing their cutting-edge Aeron and Aeron Cluster open-source development software and our development teams under one roof. The acquisition follows years of partnership between our firms and makes Adaptive a one-stop-shop for exchanges, venues, institutions and buy-side firms looking to develop and own their trading technology by offering scale, broadened expertise and technology in one place.”
Real Logic co-founder Martin Thompson, former CTO of LMAX and a recognised global expert in low latency and high performance systems, will join Adaptive as head of platform. Todd Montgomery, previously CTO of 29West and a specialist in protocol design, will also join as an engineering fellow in conjunction with the acquisition.
“Trading technology is at an inflection point,” said Thompson. “As institutions and trading firms change their approach to technology, Adaptive offers the expertise and scale to service this significant growing demand.”
Montgomery added: “Capital markets firms are increasingly realising that technology is not a cost centre, but a revenue generator. Combining forces with Adaptive will allow us to serve these firms, as firms move away from off the shelf technology, which is no longer enough to differentiate, and transition to taking front-office innovation into their own hands.”