LiquidityBook, a leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based provider of buy- and sell-side trading solutions, today announced the opening of a new office at 383 George St in Sydney, Australia.
The firm, which added more than 40 new customers in 2018, will use the new office to accommodate its growing team and support its rapid expansion in the Asia-Pacific region.
The new office will be opened by Chief Architect Andy Carroll, who joined the firm from Twitter in July 2017. He will be joined by Andre Meintjes, who was recently hired to serve as the firm’s Asia-Pacific Client Services Lead. Meintjes will play a vital role in deploying bespoke enhancements and white-glove support to both APAC-based clients and clients that trade into APAC.
Before joining LiquidityBook, Meintjes served as a Support Officer for ABN AMRO Clearing’s Global Execution Services arm, where he worked closely with all levels of clients to deploy algos for various markets and perform a wide variety of compliance operations, providing follow-the-sun support of equity and future markets. Before ABN AMRO, Meintjes worked in Derivatives Dealing and Operations at Peregrine Derivatives, where he managed DMA and internal trades and was instrumental in setting up risk management systems for the firm’s electronic clients. In all, he has spent well over a decade providing key support services to traders.
In addition to supporting LiquidityBook’s growing team, the new office better positions the firm as it works to expand and provide local service and support to its rapidly growing client base, which has shown an increasing interest in investment opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region.
Commenting on the news, Chief Revenue Officer Sean Sullivan said: “We’re very pleased to add Andre to our growing Asia-Pacific team. We’re constantly on the lookout for top-flight talent, and the addition of Andre to our new Australia office represents the latest culmination of that ongoing effort. Our SaaS-based model provides superior value to fund managers around the globe, and we hope to add to our success here, just as we did in the EU with our first global expansion office in London in 2016.”
The LiquidityBook platform delivers significant benefits in the following areas:
Cost: LBX is a fully SaaS-based product, delivered 100% via the cloud leveraging AWS’s global footprint and architecture, which is the most reliable and secure in the industry. That means there is no need to pay for hosting, remote connectivity, back up of firm trading and position data or business continuity planning. The platform provides full redundancy and accessibility anywhere in the world; users simply need a browser and connectivity to trade.
Stability and Service: LBX is an OMS/PMS/FIX order routing platform built on a single code base. Every client runs the same version, and updates are rolled out weekly. The platform is not an amalgamation of different stitched-together products; it was developed only a few years ago, making it far more reliable than competitive offerings.
Functionality: The fact that the product is one integrated platform has significant usability benefits. For instance, the GUI is incredibly flexible, allowing users to create custom columns and calculations on the fly.
Business Model: Since LiquidityBook provides its products on a SaaS basis, the firm can offer them at a very competitive price point while still being able to fully fund development, growth and product enhancements. The firm is not and has never been dependent on transactional fees to drive revenue growth. Not only do those cut into broker commission wallet commitments that many buy side are struggling to reach, this model is also potentially considered an inducement under MiFID II unless the vendor also provides connectivity.