With Andrew Ralich CEO of oneZero

You recently announced investment from Golden Gate Capital. Can you tell us more about that?

We’re thrilled to welcome Golden Gate Capital as an investor alongside our current partner, Lovell Minnick Partners. Our relationship with LMP, which began in 2019, was fundamental in driving oneZero’s recent growth. 

The insight and expertise provided strategic guidance that helped position the company as we continued to expand our team and products into new areas of the market. Golden Gate Capital’s support further strengthens our foundation of experience, governance and capital, allowing Jesse and I to remain focused on operations while we advance into our next chapter of growth.

What will this new investment enable for oneZero?

This investment, along with continued support from LMP, validates our vision to expand as a premier technology partner in global OTC asset trading. We started this company in 2009, with a goal of innovating the way brokers approach OTC trading. 

Over the past 5 years we’ve expanded our product line to service the institutional market, and realized a strong opportunity with regional banks and other institutional market participants. Golden Gate Capital’s extensive resources and industry expertise will help us accelerate our team’s growth, drive innovation in our product offerings, and explore new growth opportunities through M&A.

We have observed oneZero making significant strides in the institutional market; can you elaborate more on the company’s goals and future plans there?

In 2019 we sat down with our board, executive team and advisors and felt the time was right to make focused investments in expanding our team, product line and market reach into the institutional segment. Over the past 5 years, we’ve taken significant strides in broadening our capabilities to serve market participants throughout the FX / OTC trading vertical. 

Our core business servicing brokers and institutional sell-side has benefited not only from the expansion of the team, but our wider breadth of capabilities derived from solving some of the more complex liquidity, risk management and aggregation challenges presented by larger banks with higher bars for compliance, performance and workflow. Now that we’ve validated ourselves as an institutional market player, we’re looking to continue to expand our team and product capabilities to not only service, but innovate and disrupt the banking space similar to what we’ve done in OTC brokerage.

We understand that Bill Neuman has recently been appointed Chief Product Officer. What does this mean for the company?

The appointment of Bill Neuman as Chief Product Officer is an exciting development for oneZero, signaling a strategic focus on continuing to enhance our product innovation, client-centricity, and market responsiveness. We are now clearly a company servicing multiple areas of the FX / OTC market, and with that comes opportunities and challenges to deliver differentiated value to every member of an increasingly diverse set of clients. With his extensive experience (previously Global Head of R&D at Eze Software), Bill is well-equipped to drive the company’s product vision and accelerate our ability to deliver solutions that meet evolving client needs. His leadership is expected to streamline the product development process, improve cross-functional collaboration, and foster a culture of client-centered innovation within the team.

What other team changes have come in this latest chapter, and what do you see for future opportunities for expansion?

In addition to expanding our product function we’ve also put a keen focus on IT and infrastructure excellence. Alex Sullivan joined as Senior Vice President of IT in March 2023. With over 13 years in leadership roles across sell-side trading and hedge fund infrastructure at Bank of America and Point72, Alex now leads our IT infrastructure strategy. He’s instrumental in driving our data center and cloud infrastructure automation, network engineering, security architecture, and overall infrastructure. 

Additionally, Steve Totten has been promoted to Managing Director, Head of Institutional and Quantitative Products, where he focuses on enhancing our offerings for institutional clients. Data and analytics has always been a focus for oneZero, and with Steve on board, we are able to take our offering to the next level. The combination of Steve and Alex has proven to be extremely valuable in expanding our use of data to help drive growth for our clients.

Steve, data certainly has been a theme for oneZero, and the industry as whole over the past few years. What recent advancements have you made to your Data Source offering?

oneZero has always had a strong focus on partnering with our clients to deliver solutions that help them grow their business. We’ve introduced several enhancements to our Data Source offering that continue along that theme, helping clients to mutually optimize LP relationships and to help identify opportunities to better service end customers trading via multi-dealer platforms. Our analytics provide deeper insights into client trading patterns, helping clients make better trading decisions with reduced risk. Additionally, we now offer markout data using New Change FX’s regulated benchmark mid-point FX feed as part of our Advanced package, allowing clients to benchmark trades with greater accuracy. Interactive tools for assessing liquidity provider performance are also available, answering critical questions, such as identifying problems with and opportunities for liquidity providers and tailoring liquidity strategies by symbol and market conditions.

Coming back to you Andrew, what other product innovations are emerging with this combined approach of new people, new markets and team investments?

This year we rolled out Portfolio risk management across our client base which revolutionizes trade risk management. The innovative functionality helps clients to segment their flow and hedge in smarter ways, which enhances overall profitability. Portfolios allow for real-time implementation of multiple risk-management strategies at the same time, so that you can execute, monitor and analyze risk strategies across different customer groups, instruments or entities. Whether you set your own classifications or leverage the AI-based classifications from oneZero’s Data Source, you have the flexibility to route incoming flow to distinct Portfolios so you can apply the most appropriate risk management strategy to each group. Managing risk with Portfolios is basically like having multiple instances of the powerful oneZero Hub engine in one instance of our technology! This innovation was a direct result of investments made to service multiple areas of the market.

Another question for you Steve. Coming from the banking space, what is your perspective on oneZero’s progress in the institutional market?

We’re seeing both strong adoption and interest in our technology among regional banks worldwide. This interest reflects a growing recognition of our ability to consistently deliver scalable, high-performance, high-quality solutions to a large number of clients in the FX and broader OTC markets, as well as our very pro-active approach to adding sophisticated new features. 

This year we rolled out an additional distribution channel to our bank customers – our SME GUI – allowing clients to meet their customers wherever they choose to trade, whether that’s via our low-latency APIs, our customizable Professional Single Dealer Platform, via connectivity to Multi-Dealer Platforms, Exchanges and ECNs, our Sales/On Behalf Of UI, or now, via our SME Single-Dealer Platform GUI for a bank’s corporate customers. We also offer a wide variety of APIs that allow our clients to utilize popular third party trading front-ends, or connect their own UI.

Andrew, what market signals have you observed that have helped signal you are moving in the right direction?

The most critical type of feedback we receive comes directly from our clients, which has always been a core part of our development model. We’ve also been honoured by the recognition we’ve received in the broader market, from being named “The World’s Best FX Technology Provider” by Euromoney to numerous accolades celebrating our analytical achievements. However, our greatest validation comes from the positive feedback of partners and employees. Thanks to sustained revenue growth, we recently earned a spot on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies for the third consecutive year. Despite the demands of rapid growth, Jesse and I are truly humbled by the loyalty and enthusiasm of our team, who have helped us achieve staff-voted corporate awards that affirm our commitment to creating an exceptional workplace. We are proud to also regularly be recognized as a great place to work and grow.

So with all this momentum and excitement, what’s in store for 2025?

With the new investment from Golden Gate Capital, and continued support from Lovell Minnick Partners, we are excited for the next chapter of our growth story. We expect to double down on our efforts to expand oneZero’s innovative “Technology First” approach further into the institutional market. I also expect to see some M&A in the future to help consolidate value added capabilities in the industry to help continue to fuel disruption. Watch this space!