BMLL Makes Strategic APAC Hire to Drive Regional Growth

Karen King joins as Head of Sales, APAC, in response to increasing client demand for BMLL data and analytics across the region

London / Hong Kong, 6 January: BMLL, the leading independent provider of harmonised, historical Level 3 data and analytics, today announced the appointment of Karen King as Head of Sales (APAC). Based in Hong Kong, King will be responsible for growing BMLL’s client base across Asia Pacific and for developing and implementing the company’s growth strategy in the region.

King’s appointment comes at a time of accelerated growth for BMLL, following its acquisition by Nordic Capital, which launched a profound partnership built on a joint commitment to accelerate BMLL’s next phase of growth.

The appointment builds on the significant expansion of BMLL’s data and analytics coverage across Asia Pacific over the past 14 months. During this period, BMLL has added data from Shanghai, Bombay, NSE India, Korea, Taipei, Thailand, Taiwan, New Zealand, and ASX 24 futures. BMLL gives market participants the ability to compare venues globally and analyse full order book data at unprecedented levels of granularity. Asia exchanges can perform venue comparisons against their peers, locally and globally, to better understand market quality and the performance of liquidity providers.

Karen King brings over two decades of global financial services and data solutions experience to the role. She has led sales and client engagement across Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, working closely with both buy-side and sell-side institutions. Prior to joining BMLL, she served as Managing Director at S&P Global Market Intelligence following its merger with IHS Markit, having originally joined IHS Markit through the acquisition of Data Explorers. Earlier in her career, King worked at Goldman Sachs in London within Prime Brokerage, covering Southeast Asia.

Karen King, Head of Sales (APAC) at BMLL, said: “I am delighted to join BMLL at a time when the company is expanding its data and analytics capabilities across Asia Pacific. BMLL has seen increasing demand from market participants looking to optimise trading strategies, improve execution outcomes and gain deeper insight into market behaviour, and I look forward to working closely with clients across the region.”

Paul Humphrey, Chief Executive Officer of BMLL, said: “Following Nordic Capital’s investment in BMLL, we are focused on accelerating the company’s next phase of growth. We are strengthening our leadership and commercial presence, coupled with a broader push into greater global derivatives market coverage. Asia Pacific is a key part of that wider strategy as we aim to better serve our customers across the region, and Karen's appointment brings deep capital markets experience alongside a proven track record of leadership in data solutions. Her understanding of how financial institutions leverage data to drive performance and manage risk will be instrumental as we continue to expand our footprint and capabilities throughout APAC.”

About BMLL

BMLL Technologies is the leading, independent provider of harmonised, Level 3, 2 and 1 historical data and analytics to the world’s most sophisticated capital market participants, covering global equities, ETFs, futures and US equity options.

BMLL offers banks, brokers, asset managers, hedge funds, global exchange groups, academic institutions and regulators immediate and flexible access to the most granular Level 3, 2 and 1 T+1 order book data and advanced pre and post-trade analytics. BMLL gives users the ability to understand market behaviour, accelerate research, optimise trading strategies and generate alpha more predictably.

Founded in 2014 in the machine learning laboratories of the University of Cambridge, the platform enables researchers and quants across global financial services firms to apply complex statistical techniques to BMLL’s unique big-data sets with applications such as market impact, pre and post trade analytics, order book simulation and compliance. Users no longer need to buy, curate and harmonise data. With BMLL, they gain cost-effective, instant access to a cloud-native Data Science environment via a single web portal, with a long history of the most granular, full order book data across global equities, US equity options, futures and ETFs for back-testing and simulation, delivered directly into their workflows.

In October 2025, Nordic Capital acquired BMLL. The investment was made in close partnership with the management team of BMLL and minority shareholder Optiver, marking a joint commitment to accelerate the company’s next phase of growth. Before this, BMLL secured $21 million strategic investment in October 2024, led by Optiver; $26 million Series B investment in 2022/2023; and $36 million in Series A and seed funding rounds.

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Karen King’s biography

Karen King brings over two decades of global financial services and data solutions experience to her role. Based in Hong Kong, she has led sales and client engagement across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa, working closely with both buy‑side and sell‑side institutions. Her expertise spans Pricing and Valuations Data, Financial and Alternative Data, and enterprise solutions including desktop platforms.

Karen previously served as Managing Director at S&P Global Market Intelligence, following the merger with IHS Markit in 2022. She originally joined IHS Markit in 2012 through the acquisition of Data Explorers, where she built her career in data and analytics. Over the years, she has held senior leadership positions in London, New York, and Hong Kong, establishing and managing high‑performing sales and account management teams across these regions.

Earlier in her career, Karen worked at Goldman Sachs in London within Prime Brokerage as a stock loan sales trader, covering Southeast Asia. This foundation in capital markets, combined with her later leadership in data solutions, gives her a unique perspective on how financial institutions leverage data to drive performance and manage risk.