FD Technologies

What FD Technologies does

FD Technologies, now operating as KX Software Limited following a July 2025 take-private by TA Associates-backed Kairos Bidco, is a UK-headquartered software company that built and commercialized the kdb+ time-series database and the broader KX high-performance in-memory computing platform. The company's product portfolio centers on KDB-X as the next-generation unified platform for time-series, vector and AI infrastructure, supplemented by KDB.AI (vector database), kdb Insights (cloud-native and on-premises analytics), OneTick Cloud and OneTick Market Data (covering 200+ venues), a managed Surveillance product for trade compliance, plus industry-specific modules including KX Delta for defense and aerospace and KX Sensors for IoT/OEM. The technology is benchmarked as up to 100x more efficient than competing streaming analytics technologies, with reported 80-90% reductions in customer electricity, cooling, space and hardware requirements.

The business operates an enterprise-direct GTM targeting large financial institutions as the primary vertical, with secondary exposure to technology, automotive, utilities, manufacturing, energy, pharmaceutical and digital marketing customers. Revenue is generated primarily through software subscriptions across KDB-X, kdb Insights, KDB.AI and OneTick Cloud, with historical professional services revenue from the First Derivative consulting arm until its £230M divestiture to EPAM Systems in December 2024. The company maintains offices in Newry (HQ), New York, London, Singapore and Sydney, employs 585 people as of the FY2025 Modern Slavery Statement, and is led by CEO Seamus Keating. Following the restructuring, the company is a focused, pure-play KX software business with a strategic partnership with NVIDIA for GPU-accelerated AI workloads and a stated intent to extend the platform from capital markets into adjacent regulated and data-intensive verticals.

Name

FD Technologies

Legal name

FD Technologies Plc (now KX Software Limited)

Website

https://fdtechnologies.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1996

Operating status

Acquired

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

FD Technologies (now KX Software Limited) is a UK-headquartered software company that builds the kdb+ time-series database and the broader KX high-performance in-memory analytics platform, serving primarily large financial institutions with secondary exposure to technology, automotive, manufacturing, energy and defense customers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Time-Series Analytics Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132), Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

AI Server Systems & HGX/Accelerator Platforms (HDAAAAAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Real-Time Market Data Feeds & Terminals (FSAFAIAA)

Keywords

• Time-series database
• Streaming analytics
• In-memory computing
• Vector database
• Real-time analytics

Headquarters

HQ city

Newry

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Software Products: KX software products including kdb+, KDB-X, kdb Insights, KDB.AI, OneTick for time-series analytics, streaming analytics and AI infrastructure
2. SaaS/Cloud Services: Cloud-based analytics platforms including OneTick Cloud - fully managed cloud platform with ready-to-use market data and analytics
3. Professional Services: Consulting services for implementation and deployment of KX technology (prior to First Derivative divestment)

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

FD Technologies (now KX Software Limited) develops and sells the KX software platform centered on the proprietary kdb+ time-series database. The product portfolio includes KDB-X (next-generation time-series, vector, and AI infrastructure), KDB.AI (vector database for AI applications), kdb Insights (cloud-native analytics platform), OneTick Cloud and OneTick Market Data (managed market data and analytics for capital markets), Surveillance (trade and market compliance monitoring), KX Delta (defense/aerospace streaming), and KX Sensors (IoT streaming). The platform serves enterprise customers in financial services, technology, automotive, manufacturing, energy, and utilities.

Product overview

FD Technologies (now KX Software Limited following July 2025 acquisition) provides a unified analytics platform centered on kdb+, the time-series database technology. The product portfolio consists of KDB-X as the core next-generation platform for time-series, vector, and AI infrastructure; KDB.AI for vector database capabilities; and kdb Insights as the cloud-native analytics platform. These core offerings are complemented by industry-specific modules including KX Delta for defense, KX Sensors for IoT/OEM, and Surveillance for trade compliance. Market data products include OneTick Market Data (200+ venues of exchange data) and OneTick Cloud (managed platform with ready-to-use market data). GPU Acceleration is available as an add-on to KDB-X for enhanced performance. The portfolio serves financial services, aerospace/defense, automotive, healthcare, and manufacturing industries.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• KX: High-performance in-memory computing technology platform incorporating kdb+ time-series database for streaming analytics and operational intelligence
• kdb+
• KX
• KDB.AI
• kdb Insights
• OneTick
• KDB-X
• OneTick Cloud

Products and services

• KDB-X High-performance time-series, vector, and AI infrastructure platform for building real-time data and AI applications in capital markets.
• KDB.AI Vector database designed for analytics and AI applications, enabling similarity search and AI-powered data retrieval.
• kdb Insights Cloud-native and on-premises analytics platform providing unified time-series analytics capabilities.
• OneTick Cloud Fully managed cloud platform with ready-to-use market data and analytics for financial services customers.
• OneTick Market Data Normalized, cleansed, maintained exchange market data from 200+ venues for trading and analytics applications.
• Surveillance Managed SaaS or customizable solution for compliance and trade monitoring in financial services.
• KX Delta Real-time data streaming platform designed specifically for the defense and aerospace industry.
• KX Sensors Large-volume streaming solution for Internet of Things (IoT) and OEM industry applications.
• KDB-X GPU Acceleration NVIDIA GPU acceleration capability for KDB-X that enhances time-series and AI workloads for high-performance computing scenarios.

Quantifiable outcome

• 80-90% reduction in electricity, cooling, space and hardware requirements compared to competing technologies
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability7 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered major, core and minor.

• EPAM Systems IncmajorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 3 December 2024EPAM Systems acquired FD Technologies' First Derivative consulting business for £230 million. This transaction allowed FD Technologies to reduce net debt, return cash to shareholders, and focus on its KX software division. The deal was expected to finalize in late 2024.
• NVIDIAcoreTechnology or IntegrationKX has developed GPU Acceleration capabilities using NVIDIA GPUs for enhanced time-series and AI workloads. KDB-X GPU Acceleration enables real-time AI in capital markets with NVIDIA GPU technology.
• NOW GroupminorOthersSocial enterprise partnership supporting people with learning difficulties and autism into jobs with a future, supporting diversity and inclusion initiatives.
• Lean-In FoundationminorOthersCorporate partnership with Lean-In Foundation for women's mentorship program - initiative designed to get small groups of women together regularly for peer mentorship through Strive Mentorship programme.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves1 record

Expansion highlights6 records

Emerging players

• QuestDB: Open-source high-performance time-series database optimized for SQL-based real-time analytics. Emerging alternative to kdb+ in capital markets and IoT, particularly where teams prefer SQL over q.
• Weaviate: Open-source vector database with strong AI/RAG positioning and hybrid search capabilities. Emerging competitor to KDB.AI as financial institutions build vector search infrastructure for AI applications.

Direct peers

• InfluxData: Time-series database platform (InfluxDB) widely used for IoT, monitoring, and operational analytics. Direct overlap with KX Sensors / KX Delta for industrial, IoT, and sensor-driven time-series workloads.
• Timescale: PostgreSQL-based time-series database with strong cloud-native story (Timescale Cloud) and vector/AI extensions. Competes for time-series workloads and increasingly for the developer mindshare that KX needs to broaden adoption.
• Snowflake: Cloud data platform with growing time-series, streaming, and AI/vector capabilities. Competes with KX for enterprise analytics workloads, particularly in financial services where Snowflake is gaining adoption for market data and risk analytics.
• Databricks: Unified data + AI lakehouse platform offering high-performance analytics, streaming, and now vector/AI capabilities (Mosaic AI). Competes with KX for time-series and streaming workloads in capital markets and large enterprises, and increasingly in AI infrastructure.
• Imply (Apache Druid): Real-time analytics database built on Apache Druid for sub-second queries on streaming data. Directly comparable to KX for operational intelligence and event-driven analytics use cases in digital, IoT, and capital markets.
• ClickHouse: Open-source column-oriented OLAP database known for high-performance analytics on large datasets. Direct competitor for streaming and time-series workloads that KX/kdb+ historically dominated, with growing enterprise traction.
• Pinecone: Managed vector database purpose-built for similarity search and AI applications. Directly competes with KDB.AI for vector workloads in financial services AI and broader enterprise RAG/agentic use cases.

Broad incumbents

• MongoDB: General-purpose document database with time-series, vector search, and Atlas stream processing capabilities. Broader incumbent competing with KX for new analytical workloads, though without the same time-series depth.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/FDplc
• GitHubgithub.com/KxSystems
• YouTubeyoutube.com/KxSystems
• Facebookfacebook.com/firstderivatives
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/first-derivatives

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Subsidiaries2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors2 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A13 records

Investments6 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about FD Technologies