Back in May, B2BROKER launched Liquidity Provider Turnkey, a new solution that lets brokers and other financial institutions start their own liquidity provider business.
Fortuitously, John Murillo, the company’s Chief Business Officer, was also in London not long after that new product went live.
Looking out at a rainy London day from high up in the Shard, we talked through the turnkey solution and why B2BROKER decided to launch it.
For someone reading this interview that isn’t familiar with Liquidity Provider Turnkey, can you give a short overview of what the product does?
The simplest way to think about it is it’s like Wix for liquidity providers.
Wix lets you start a website quickly and without technical knowledge. Liquidity Provider Turnkey lets you set up a liquidity provider business fast and simply, meaning you can onboard professional and institutional clients for your business.
We do as much or as little as you want. So we can set up your bridge and distribution channels, payments, website, licensing and so on.
Why did B2BROKER decide to launch the product?
Like a lot of products we’ve launched over the last decade, it was based on client demand.
Without going into too many details, one of our partners wanted to start a liquidity provider arm and was on the cusp of spending a lot of money to do it.
We saw that as an opportunity because we could give them a simpler, more cost-effective solution. We figured, ‘ok, what if we do all the tech and other operational support to get you set up as an LP?’ They liked the idea and so we built the product around it.
Are you worried that you’ll just be competing with yourself by doing this given you also have a liquidity provider arm to your business as well?
I always think competition is healthy, it keeps us sharp and client-focused.
Plus, you are always going to have partners who have their own relationships that are more personal and where they are better suited to work with those clients.
You said the client you initially built the product for was happy with the solution. Can you talk in more detail about why that was the case?
It’s mainly technical and operational.
If I draw an analogy, a lot of people that start a broker might be great at marketing and sales but their backend operational knowledge on how to manage liquidity hubs or payments might be poorer.
In the LP space, it’s the same. You need to have those nuts and bolts set up properly if you want to run a good business and a lot of companies don’t have that expertise.
Another part of it is the prime broker relationships. We are facing major investment banks. A lot of guys assume they can just go on Morgan Stanley or JP Morgan’s website and apply for a prime broker relationship. They don’t realise how intensive the capital requirements are and the fact that you need to build strong relationships to make it happen.
Obviously it’s only been a few weeks since you launched the product publicly but have you had any clients onboard yet?
Yes, we have three clients up and running already, and we also have a good pipeline of business coming through.
From the outside, it looks like you have been making more of a push on the liquidity side. You’ve hired a few senior people in London and in APAC, for example, and are doing some more marketing initiatives. What’s the thinking there?
I’ve been at B2BROKER for almost a decade now and I’ve seen us go from this start up to a big company, employing hundreds of people and with three clear business arms.
Liquidity has been there for a long time. I don’t want to say we have been quiet about it but we are working with more than 150 companies now and I think people would be surprised at that number and the scale we’ve achieved.
What we want to do now is take the business to the next level and, to make that happen, you need a strong, experienced team. We are also working on some more products and projects in the background, on technology for example.
We don’t want to lose the start-up mentality because that is what has made us great but we are also an established, serious player now and we need to make sure everything we do reflects that.
So we can expect more to come in that regard?
Absolutely, we are currently getting a bigger office set up here in London, for example, and there will be more hires coming through in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled.
