Lab49 consolidates global growth targets

We’re seeing some very interesting technology being used in London and interesting applications of this technology.

Ross Hamilton
Marketing director
Lab49

London is four to five times as big as any other financial market in Europe and is deserving of a lot of focus.

Vivake Gupta
Managing director
Lab49

By Anna Rooke, OurWorld Editor

As financial markets become more global and the need for transparency increases, banks and other financial institutions require higher performance applications to manage the growing complexity of their operations.

US financial services consultancy and technology provider Lab49 offers the expertise and technology to help them.

But operating from a US base the firm was finding that it could not devote adequate time and attention to the rapidly expanding European market and the transatlantic demands of its US clients.

It chose the UK as the location for its European base and has just announced the opening of its London office.

Early technology adopter

“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,” says Vivake Gupta, managing director of the UK office.

As an 'early adopter' of new technologies, he believes London is a strategic business location for the firm.

“We’re seeing some very interesting technology being used in London and interesting applications of this technology,” Lab49’s marketing director, Ross Hamilton, tells OurWorld.

He cites grid computing and its application to complex real-time risk applications for financial institutions as one example of a technology that is rapidly evolving in London and that its consultants are currently implementing.

Finance and technology capital in one

London was the obvious choice for a European office, owing to the size of its financial services sector.

“London is four to five times as big as any other financial market in Europe and is deserving of a lot of focus,” says Gupta.

“It has a similar number of financial services professionals and a similar volume of transactions as New York,” he adds.

It is a particularly important location for Lab49 because it brings together both the UK’s financial services and technology capitals.

Hamilton contrasts this with the USA, where the technology centre, San Francisco, and the financial services capital, New York, are separate from one another.

Sourcing software expertise

Lab49 considers the UK market worthy of significant investment and one resource they are investing heavily in is the staff.

“We want the London office to do well and we want to signal the importance to us of this market so we’ve invested heavily in high-level management,” says Gupta, who has come over from the US to manage the new office.

The company has also been able to source UK-based software experts with finance and banking expertise as well as technology skills for the new operation.

Early signs of success

The London office is underway already with a staff of 12 employees.

It has only been running for two months yet Lab49 is already experiencing high levels of demand for its services.

“We’ve done really well in the last two months,” says Gupta, “and we’re already engaged on five major projects across three clients.”