kACE
kACE, developed by smartTrade Technologies, provides multi-asset electronic trading and payments SaaS platforms to banks, brokers, and buy-side institutions. The kACE suite covers pricing analytics, trade execution, liquidity connectivity, and treasury management across FX, fixed income, crypto, and derivatives.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2018
- HeadquartersLondon, United Kingdom
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What kACE does
kACE is a suite of multi-asset electronic trading platforms developed and marketed under smartTrade Technologies, a France-domiciled (Aix-en-Provence headquarters) private fintech founded as a for-profit company with London as a key operational base. The kACE product line — kACE Pro (professional-grade trading platform), kACE Gateway (liquidity connectivity), and kACE Treasury (treasury management) — sits within a broader smartTrade portfolio that includes LiquidityFX for FX, Commercial Banking & Payments (CBP) for cross-border payments, smartFI for fixed income, and a multi-asset Analytics module. The platform serves banks, brokers, buy-side institutions, and corporates globally, with named enterprise customers including Mizuho, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Citi, PNC Bank, BCV, Arbuthnot Latham, ABN, SEBA, Ebury, CME Group, and Concentra.
The platform is built on a proprietary 'Meta Cloud' private SaaS architecture supporting deployment to private or native public clouds, with datacenter colocation in London (LD4, LD7), New York (NY2, NY4), and Tokyo (TY3) for ultra-low-latency trade execution. Infrastructure connects to 130+ liquidity providers and is SOC 2 Type 2 certified. Modular and cross-asset by design, the platform supports FX (spot, forwards, swaps, NDFS, options), crypto, fixed income, precious metals, money markets, and derivatives. Integration APIs and dependency injection enable customers to embed proprietary logic and connect to third-party applications including Murex, the dominant bank trading system.
Revenue is generated primarily through enterprise SaaS subscriptions billed under multi-year contracts, supplemented by professional services for implementation and integration. Pricing is quote-based and consultative, with dedicated regional sales contacts in the Americas (+1 646 381 2029), EMEA (+44 20 33 18 10 74), and APAC (+81 (0)3 6863 5286). The go-to-market is direct enterprise sales targeting regulated financial institutions, supplemented by industry events, thought-leadership content, and partnership-driven distribution.
kACE firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- kACE
- Legal name
- smartTrade Technologies
- Website
- https://kacefinancial.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2018
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- kACE, developed by smartTrade Technologies, provides multi-asset electronic trading and payments SaaS platforms to banks, brokers, and buy-side institutions. The kACE suite covers pricing analytics, trade execution, liquidity connectivity, and treasury management across FX, fixed income, crypto, and derivatives.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where kACE is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- London
- HQ country
- United Kingdom
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices5 records
Markets served
kACE business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- SaaS Platform Subscription: Subscription-based access to end-to-end multi-asset electronic trading and payments platforms. Secure private SaaS model with in-house hosted solution covering liquidity aggregation, execution, risk management, order management, analytics, payments, and distribution.
- Professional Services: Implementation and integration services for deploying smartTrade solutions with existing systems and third-party applications.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Enterprise SaaS platform with customizable modules |
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels8 records
kACE product offering
Product offeringCore offering
kACE provides multi-asset electronic trading and payments platforms covering FX spot, forwards, swaps, NDFS, options, fixed income, money markets, derivatives, crypto, and precious metals. The offering includes liquidity aggregation from 130+ providers, smart execution algorithms, risk and order management, analytics, and cross-border payments, delivered as a secure private SaaS with open API architecture and ultra-low latency collocation.
Product overview
smartTrade Technologies provides kACE as a suite of electronic trading platforms (kACE Pro, kACE Gateway, kACE Treasury) alongside its broader multi-asset electronic trading and payments platform portfolio. kACE products are part of an integrated ecosystem that includes LiquidityFX for FX trading, Commercial Banking & Payments for cross-border payments, smartFI for fixed income trading, and Analytics for multi-asset data analytics. All solutions share common infrastructure including 130+ liquidity provider connections, SOC 2 Type 2 compliant secure private SaaS architecture, and Integration APIs enabling customers to connect proprietary logic and third-party applications.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- kACE Pro: Multi-asset electronic trading platform solution
- kACE Gateway
- kACE Treasury
- LiquidityFX
- smartFI
- Analytics
- Commercial Banking & Payments (CBP)
Products and services
- kACE Pro Professional-grade electronic trading platform designed for buy-side and sell-side institutions covering execution, order management, and connectivity across asset classes.
- kACE Gateway Gateway solution that enables connectivity to liquidity providers and execution integration with internal trading systems.
- kACE Treasury Treasury management solution for managing liquidity, FX risk, and financial operations for banks and corporates.
- LiquidityFX Comprehensive FX trading solution providing liquidity access, smart execution algorithms, risk management, straight-through processing, payments, and distribution for FX spot, forwards, swaps, NDFS, and options.
- Commercial Banking & Payments (CBP) End-to-end FX and payments platform that enables banks to provide an integrated cross-border payment experience with full lifecycle functionality.
- smartFI Fixed income trading solution enabling sell-side and buy-side firms to automate workflows, meet regulatory requirements, and obtain trading and counterparty insights.
- Analytics Multi-asset big-data analytics and reporting solution that delivers insights into clients and liquidity providers for sales and traders.
- Agentic Copilot Governed, sovereign Agentic Copilot that processes natural language inputs and autonomously drives multi-step actions across trading and payments workflows with human oversight.
Quantifiable outcome
- Connected to 130+ liquidity providers for comprehensive market access
Companies that use kACE
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
kACE technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability2 records
Feature6 records
kACE partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- LiquidityMatchcoresmartTrade Powers RateStream by LiquidityMatch - strategic partnership providing intelligent price discovery for institutional FX matching.
- Deutsche BankcoreDeutsche Bank extends dbHedge availability via smartTrade's LiquidityFX platform, enabling broader distribution of hedge fund products.
- MurexcoreIntegration partnership with Murex for seamless e-FX solution implementation at ABN (case study client). smartTrade solutions demonstrated efficient implementation and great capacity to integrate with existing third-party applications.
Scale indicators4 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
kACE competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- EBS (CME Group): Broad incumbent operating a major institutional FX trading venue and related execution services. Comparable to LiquidityFX as a regulated FX marketplace serving banks and institutional liquidity takers.
- MarketAxess: Broad incumbent operating an electronic trading platform for fixed income securities. Comparable to smartFI for institutional credit and rates trading workflows and analytics.
- Tradeweb: Broad incumbent operating electronic marketplaces for fixed income, derivatives, and ETFs. Comparable to smartFI and broader kACE positioning for institutional electronic trading in fixed income and rates products.
- Bloomberg FXGO (and EMSX): Broad incumbent offering FXGO for institutional FX execution and EMSX for multi-asset order management. Competes via bundled data, analytics, and messaging — directly comparable to kACE's institutional FX and multi-asset positioning.
Direct peers
- Broadridge Trading and Connectivity Solutions (formerly Itiviti): Direct peer providing multi-asset trading infrastructure, connectivity, and order management to banks and brokers. Comparable in serving institutional FX and multi-asset workflows with similar low-latency connectivity requirements.
- FlexTrade Systems: Direct peer providing multi-asset execution management systems (EMS) and order management for buy-side and sell-side institutions across FX, equities, futures, and options. Highly comparable product architecture and customer base to kACE Pro and LiquidityFX.
- TradingScreen: Direct peer offering a multi-asset trading platform connecting buy-side and sell-side to liquidity providers globally. Comparable in targeting institutional clients seeking consolidated execution, order management, and analytics across asset classes.
- Integral (FX): Direct peer offering an electronic FX trading and workflow platform connecting banks, brokers, and asset managers with liquidity providers. Closely comparable to LiquidityFX for spot FX aggregation, pricing distribution, and straight-through processing.
- State Street GlobalLink: Direct peer providing FX trading and workflow solutions to institutional clients globally. Comparable in targeting banks, asset managers, and corporates with multi-bank FX aggregation, algo execution, and post-trade services.
Others
- OneMarketData (OneTick): Adjacent provider of market data infrastructure, time-series analytics, and trading technology components. Comparable to kACE Analytics as an enabling layer for institutional trading and surveillance workflows.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
kACE social profiles
Digital presencekACE compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
kACE financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
kACE leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
kACE funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
kACE M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about kACE
What does kACE do?
kACE provides multi-asset electronic trading and payments platforms covering FX spot, forwards, swaps, NDFS, options, fixed income, money markets, derivatives, crypto, and precious metals. The offering includes liquidity aggregation from 130+ providers, smart execution algorithms, risk and order management, analytics, and cross-border payments, delivered as a secure private SaaS with open API architecture and ultra-low latency collocation.
Is kACE a public or private company?
kACE is a private company. It is classified as corporate owned and is currently operating.
When was kACE founded?
kACE was founded in 2018. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is kACE based?
kACE is headquartered in London, United Kingdom, in the Europe region.
How does kACE make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. SaaS Platform Subscription is the primary driver. The others are professional Services.
Who are kACE's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are EBS (CME Group), MarketAxess, Tradeweb and Bloomberg FXGO (and EMSX). Direct peers are Broadridge Trading and Connectivity Solutions (formerly Itiviti), FlexTrade Systems, TradingScreen, Integral (FX) and State Street GlobalLink. OneMarketData (OneTick) is listed as an others.
Does kACE have an API?
Yes. smartTrade offers Integration APIs using standard APIs and dependency injection that allow LiquidityFX customers to easily integrate to their systems and other solutions. The solution enables integration to customers' existing systems through open architecture.