What B2N LIMITED does

B2N Limited is a privately held UK-incorporated financial technology company founded in 2007 that develops MarketHub, an enterprise platform for real-time financial market data transport, monitoring, and delivery. The platform serves banks, brokers, hedge funds, trading firms, and financial analysts by providing vendor-independent data delivery from 50+ exchanges and major data vendors (Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, Interactive Data), supporting up to 500,000 updates per second across 50,000+ instruments and 2,000+ concurrent client connections on Windows, Linux, and Solaris infrastructure via a pure-Java server core.

The company's technical differentiation centers on its proprietary OneThreeSeven (OTS) messaging protocol — patented and delivering approximately 50% message size reduction without increased CPU utilization — and its NanoFibre API, which achieves 400-500 nanosecond latency, roughly 10x faster than its predecessor. MarketHub is architected as a modular platform with specialized components: feed handlers for consolidated and direct exchange feeds; Session Based Management (SBM) and MHDefer for exchange-fee optimization; IntelliBBO and L2 Aggregator for best-bid/offer and order-book consolidation; a derivation engine that produces non-reversible data products for redistribution-policy compliance; adapters for FIX protocol (MD2FIX), Coral8 CEP, and Bloomberg Data License; and APIs in Java, C++, C#, Python, VB, VBA, and COM.

B2N monetizes through enterprise software licensing for the MarketHub platform and its modules on a subscription or perpetual basis, plus recurring support and maintenance revenue. Distribution relies on direct enterprise field sales targeting large financial institutions, supplemented by a strategic partnership with Hentsū (announced February 2016) to deliver cloud-native market data services via Amazon Web Services infrastructure across 11 global regions. The company operates offices in London (UK headquarters), Cambridge (Massachusetts, USA), Hong Kong (APAC regional HQ), and Singapore; acquired Euro Market Data Ltd in March 2011; and acquired I4THINGS — an IoT LPWAN standard — in August 2019, signaling a diversification outside its core financial-market-data franchise. No revenue, headcount, or funding figures are disclosed in available sources.

Name

B2N LIMITED

Legal name

B2N Limited

Website

https://b2net.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

B2N Limited is a UK-based private fintech founded in 2007 that builds MarketHub, an enterprise platform for vendor-independent, low-latency real-time financial market data transport, feed handling, and exchange-fee optimization, serving banks, brokers, hedge funds, and trading firms.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. MarketHub Platform Licensing: Enterprise software licensing for the MarketHub data delivery platform, including various modules for messaging infrastructure, feed handlers, adapters, and data management tools. Licensed to financial institutions, hedge funds, and trading firms on a subscription or perpetual basis.
2. Enterprise Software Support and Maintenance: Ongoing technical support, updates, and maintenance services for deployed MarketHub installations, providing revenue from existing customer base.
3. Cloud-Enabled Services via Partners: Revenue generated through partnerships with cloud providers like AWS via Hentsū, delivering hosted market data services to fund managers.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

B2N develops and licenses the MarketHub platform, an enterprise software system for transporting, monitoring, broadcasting, and processing large volumes of real-time financial market data (prices, trades, order books) across networks. The platform includes a core server plus a suite of modules: feed handlers for 20+ exchanges and consolidated vendors, an Authority Server for caching/permissioning, OTFE messaging infrastructure, IntelliBBO/L2 Aggregator derivation engines, FIX server, Excel publisher, historical tick recording, and a Python API. The offering is sold to financial institutions, brokers, hedge funds, and trading firms for use in trading, risk management, and market data redistribution.

Product overview

B2N LIMITED offers MarketHub, a modular platform-plus-components architecture for real-time financial data management and delivery. The core MarketHub Platform provides monitoring, data-broadcasting, and network transport for large volumes of financial market data (prices, trades, order books) at up to 500,000 updates per second. This core platform is extended by specialized modules including: Feed Handlers for Bloomberg B-Pipe/B-POD, Thomson Reuters RMDS, Interactive Data PlusFeed, and 20+ direct exchange feeds; OTFE (Optimized Transport for Enterprise) for extreme message compression; Authority Server for caching, permissioning, and session management; Client Pack with Excel RTD adapters and MD2/Python APIs; Historical Pack for tick-by-tick recording and playback; Data Deferring for cost optimization; IntelliBBO and L2 Aggregator for best bid/offer consolidation; and specialized adapters for FIX protocol, Coral8 CEP, and Bloomberg Data License. Transport flexibility includes proprietary B2N Zero/TCP/HTTP along with third-party TIBCO, LBM/29West, and IBM LLM. The platform runs on Windows, Linux, Solaris supporting 2,000+ client connections and 50,000+ instruments.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• MarketHub: Cutting-edge monitoring and data-broadcasting technology platform for tracking and publishing financial market data changes. Transports real-time financial data including prices and trades over networks.
• IntelliBBO
• NanoFibre API
• MD2FIX

Products and services

• MarketHub Platform Cutting-edge monitoring and data-broadcasting technology that transports large amounts of real-time financial data (prices and trades) over networks. Pure Java server running on Windows, Solaris, Linux. Handles 30,000 to 500,000 updates/second, more than 2,000 client connections and 50,000+ instruments. Designed for traders, brokers, and financial analysts at financial institutions.
• MarketHub Messaging Infrastructure (OTFE) Extreme message serialization/deserialization protocol with patented OTS data representation achieving 50% smaller message size compared to competitors without increased CPU utilization. Includes state-of-the-art OrderBook representation in array deltas.
• MarketHub Authority Server Server module with multi-level real-time data cache, data access permission manager, usage reports, Session Based Management (SBM) for optimizing exchange fees, and a built-in web application server for control and custom WebLets.
• MarketHub Client Pack Client software including Excel RTD Subscriber (100,000 instruments subscription), Excel Publisher, MD2 APIs (C#/C++/JAVA/COM/VB/VBA for Windows/Linux/Solaris 32/64-bit), MHPanel GUI applications in Java and C#, and auto-updating/resilience capabilities.
• MarketHub Session and SecureSession APIs Establishes unique unicast connections between host and client via MarketHub transport with AuthorityServer. SecureSession variant provides encrypted implementation with signature support. Rich set of classes and examples for in-house development.
• MarketHub Adapters to Third Party Platforms Hi-performance adapters connecting MarketHub with RMDS (bidirectional input/output) and Coral8 (C# and Java output adapters) for complex event processing (CEP) functionality.
• MarketHub Feed Handlers Extensive feed handler suite for FIX-FAST, Bloomberg B-Pipe/B-POD (Platinum authorized), RMDS, QuoteSpeed, IDC PlusFeed, and direct exchange feeds (Budapest, Bulgarian, Eurex, European Energy Exchange, Frankfurt, Irish, Shanghai, Vienna, LIFFE, LSE, Turquoise, Chi-X, BATS, NYSE Euronext, AutobahnFX, Currenex, PATS).
• MarketHub Feed Control (Data Refining Factory) Controls and consumes multiple incoming feeds to generate consolidated feeds based on priorities. Supports data injection between feeds, BBO and OrderBook aggregation (L1 & L2), IBBO for volume-weighted pricing, and delayed feed generation.
• MarketHub Data Deferring (MHDefer) Flexible access providing real-time data stream to some subscribers while others receive streaming delayed data. Delay and update intervals configurable per exchange requirements enabling cost optimization with potential 10%+ savings on Exchange Fee costs.
• MarketHub Historical Pack Historical data recording and playback suite including TickRecorder (tick-by-tick database recording), TimeSeriesGenerator (OHLC recording), TimeSeriesPublisher (database to instrument publishing), FlatFiles, XMLRecorder/XMLReplay, BinaryRecorder/BinaryReplay, and Lease application.
• MarketHub Hi-Perf Excel Publisher Enterprise Excel Publisher enabling data from Excel to be published in MarketHub infrastructure. Runs multi-threaded (5-10x faster than VBA version) generating 5000 updates per second on commodity hardware. Connects to AuthorityServer via MD2 API.
• MarketHub Web Site Pack Web integration tools including PollServer (real-time data on websites), PollClient Java and C# for accessing PollServer, and WebRequestHandler for custom WebLets.
• IntelliBBO and L2 Aggregator
• NanoFibre API Ultra-low latency API achieving 400-500 nanoseconds latency with 1000-1300 nanoseconds total processing time (approximately 10x improvement over standard MD2 API). Addresses multi-vendor and direct feed blending complexity.
• Python API Hi-performance contribute/consume API for Python developers designed for risk management and calculations accessing multiple market data sources. Inherits C++ extreme performance and portability across Windows, Linux, Solaris 32/64-bit.
• MD2FIX (FIX Server) Converts ordinary order book representation (MarketFeed style) to FIX protocol deltas enabling trading systems to consume B2N platform data using FIX adapters. Supports Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters, IDC aggregators. Delivers BBO/L1 and Order Book/L2 in Flat, Aggregated by Price or Full Order Book format.
• Static and EOD Data Solution
• Hi-Perf Derivation Data Engine
• Bloomberg Data License Adaptor
• MHLogger
• Bitcoin/BTC/Mt.Gox Feed Handler
• Exchange Guide

Quantifiable outcome

• Achieves 10x latency improvement (400-500 nanoseconds vs 5-10 microseconds) using NanoFibre API
• +5 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration27 records

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• HentsūcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 26 February 2016Strategic partnership with Hentsū, a hedge fund technology specialist, to deliver a full range of real-time and historical market data services to fund managers worldwide using Amazon Web Services. The Hentsū Hub leverages AWS infrastructure with B2N's feed handlers delivered through a single API. This partnership addresses client needs for cloud-hosted market data connectivity, research clusters, tick data capture, and trading applications.
• Amazon Web Services (AWS)coreTechnology or IntegrationAWS infrastructure is leveraged through the Hentsū partnership to deliver B2N's market data services to fund managers globally. AWS provides the cloud infrastructure across 11 geographical regions including US, Europe, Brazil, Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Australia.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Kx Systems: Kx Systems (part of FD Technologies) provides the KDB+ time-series database and streaming analytics platform, widely used for tick data capture, market data analytics, and trading research — competing with B2N's Historical Pack, MHLogger, and Python API for analytical workloads.
• OneMarketData: OneMarketData (formerly Activ Financial) provides real-time and historical market data feeds, ticker plants, and analytics via its OneTick platform — directly comparable to B2N's MarketHub feed handlers, OTFE messaging, and historical recording suite.
• Options IT: Options IT provides managed IT infrastructure and market data delivery services to the global trading community, including feed handlers, ticker plants, and connectivity for banks and hedge funds — a near-direct overlap with B2N's MarketHub offering for financial institutions.
• Exegy: Exegy builds low-latency market data appliances, feed handlers, and trading infrastructure used by sell-side firms, exchanges, and prop traders. Its hardware-accelerated data delivery competes head-to-head with B2N's NanoFibre API and MarketHub platform.

Broad incumbents

• ION Group (Fidessa): ION's Fidessa division offers order management, market data, and connectivity platforms to global buy-side and sell-side firms. While ION is a much larger incumbent, its market data and connectivity modules compete with B2N at enterprise accounts that prefer consolidated vendor relationships.
• Solace: Solace provides an event streaming platform and messaging brokers used by capital markets firms for real-time data distribution. Its PubSub+ platform competes with MarketHub's transport adapters in capital markets deployments, though Solace serves a broader set of industries beyond financial services.
• Refinitiv (LSEG): Refinitiv (now part of LSEG) operates the RMDS market data platform and Elektron real-time feed, which B2N's MarketHub actually integrates with as an adapter. As the dominant incumbent in financial market data, Refinitiv's bundled offerings compete with B2N's independent value proposition at large enterprises.
• Tibco Software: Tibco's messaging middleware (including the FTL/RV product line) is used by financial institutions as the transport layer for real-time market data distribution — directly overlapping B2N's B2N Zero Latency Transport and OTS protocol, but as part of a broader enterprise middleware portfolio.
• Vela Trading Technologies: Vela provides a full-stack suite of low-latency market data, order routing, and execution infrastructure for global trading firms — a much broader portfolio than B2N's, but with overlapping feed handler, ticker plant, and FIX capabilities that compete for the same enterprise procurement budgets.

Emerging players

• Activ Financial (legacy / part of OneMarketData): Originally Activ Financial and now consolidated under OneMarketData, this brand historically competed with B2N on low-latency feed handlers and ticker plants for FX, equities, and futures. It is referenced here as the historical peer entity that has since merged into the broader OneMarketData platform.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses1 record

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/b2n-ltd

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about B2N LIMITED