Lab49, Inc., a consulting firm that specialises in building advanced applications for global financial institutions, today announced the opening of its UK office.
The launch follows an increased demand for the consultancy's custom development services, driven by the local UK market and by US clients with transatlantic projects.
Vivake Gupta, Managing Director, Lab49 UK, said, "As financial markets become more global, and trading and IT diversify geographically, it will become mandatory for Lab49 to respond. London is the first step."
Globalisation, and the attendant regulatory and technological changes, is causing firms to see increasing trade volumes and trade complexity. Further, the marketplace requires lower latency, faster execution, and increasingly complex workflow and reporting options. "For the UK specifically, and Europe in general, we have seen a massive growth in the demand for increasingly complex financial instruments and trade efficiency, and consequently in the need for technology expertise to support that activity," said Gupta.
Currently, Lab49 UK is working in the equities, mortgage, credit and repo markets with a specific focus on projects spanning from front-office trading systems to infrastructure and analytics, as well as providing expertise in the enterprise grid arena. Typical client engagements range from development of new trading and risk applications, to agile mentoring, architecture and client team management.
Matt Davey, VP of Technology, Lab49 UK, said, "At present our UK clients are calling on our expertise in the usage of grids within the front- and middle-office for number crunching and risk analysis and we're also seeing huge interest in integrating .NET, Java and C++ platforms to create multi-tier trading systems. A tier 1 investment bank has also asked us to apply our knowledge of iterative and agile development methodologies to improve the overall delivery of technology solutions to the business."
Based at 288 Bishopsgate, London, the office is underway already with a staff of 12 employees, currently working across 4 projects at multiple client sites and continues to see strong demand. Its software engineers have a mix of skills throughout finance and banking, as well as in various areas of technology including artificial intelligence, grid platforms, real-time computation, and advanced visualization.
In accordance with today's complex, heterogeneous environments, Lab49 offers expertise in .Net, Java and C++ with nearly all of the staff proficient in multiple technologies. In addition, the majority of the firm's engineers have more than a decade of experience in financial services and technology.
As part of the globalisation and expansion of Lab49, the company recently also appointed Ross Hamilton as Director of Client Engagements and Marketing. His extensive knowledge of the financial services market and clients' business practices will help Lab49 set its global service offering and align itself in the marketplace. Hamilton is based in the consultancy’s New York office.