LLR Partners, a middle market private equity firm with over USD1.4bn under management, has closed an investment in Lightspeed Financial, the proceeds of which will be used to finance the acquisition of Terra Nova Financial.
Lightspeed is a provider of direct market access trading technology, risk management solutions and brokerage services for institutional investors and professional retail active traders.
The acquisition brings Lightspeed’s total client base to more than 7,500 active traders executing an average of over 220 million equity shares per day with total client assets exceeding USD1.35bn.
“We are excited about our partnership with LLR and leveraging their experience in helping to grow leading middle market businesses,” says Stephen Ehrlich, chief executive of Lightspeed. “Bringing the Terra Nova client base under the Lightspeed Financial umbrella furthers our pursuit to unify this fragmented active trading segment of the market. We look forward to working with LLR to capitalise on the many organic and acquisition opportunities that exist in the market.”
Lightspeed has completed five transactions in the active trading industry since its inception over four years ago and three this year alone. Past transactions include the acquisitions of retail trading firms Schonfeld, Integrity Trading and NobleTrading, and a deal this past June that gave Lightspeed the exclusive license for the Anvil trading software, which was previously available through Assent.
“LLR tracked Lightspeed’s progress for an extended period and recognised their best-in-class technology platform delivering trading tools and customer service into a compelling market segment,” says Mitchell Hollin of LLR Partners. “The combination of Lightspeed’s seasoned management team and success as the industry consolidator led LLR to partner with the Lightspeed team to continue building out their industry-leading suite of products and services.”