EXANTE is a prominent broker working with professional clients, licensed in London, Hong Kong and Cyprus. The story begins with founders Anatoly Knyazev, Alexey Kirienko and GatisEglitis, who first launched EXANTE in Malta in 2011. Their mission has remained consistent ever since –to provide access to global markets for professional clients, with a worldwide range of trading products accessed through a single account. Each founder has brought something unique to the business, and in the case of Knyazev dates back to an early interest in mathematics, eventually leading to a successful trading career in his own right, and ultimately the idea of founding a broker to furnish traders like him with all of their execution needs. Throughout his career, a keen understanding of his own client base has given Knyazev the tools to develop a market-leading trading platform. Combined with the expertise of his fellow partners, these insights have made EXANTE an award-winning service, with clients executing billions of dollars worth of trades through the platform in multiple currencies and across hundreds of thousands of instruments.
Knyazev had a fascination with maths since a very early age, a state of affairs that naturally grew during his student days. Surrounded by the burgeoning technology sector of the era, Knyazev began working with computer systems at university, an interest that eventually developed into his founding technical role with EXANTE. After completing his studies, Knyazev launched his career at Netcracker Technology Corporation, providing business and operations support solutions to a range of clients. This experience gave Knyazev a strong grounding in the technical challenges of managing a multi-client platform, a grounding that translates directly into better results and lower latency trades for EXANTE clients today. At the same time as his work with Netcracker, Knyazev was continually working on his own trading strategies, developing derivatives arbitrage calculations and trading them profitably. Throughout his time trading on his own account, he developed a strong network of traders and other market participants, a social and professional circle that eventually connected Knyazev to other key figures in EXANTE’s history.
From 2007, Knyazev was working on early trading software and developing a niche as a service provider to other traders. Some of these early products became test-runs for eventual EXANTE services, services which the client base still benefit from today. It is around this time that he met Kirienko, another trader sharing many of the same interests. Searching for a partner with the requisite business development experience to help launch and grow their new venture, Knyazev and Kirienko got in touch with GatisEglitis, and soon founded EXANTE. The early years of EXANTE involved a steady expansion from Malta to Cyprus, rapidly acquiring registration with CySec, before successfully seeking FCA approval to operate in the British market, alongside the SFC for Hong Kong. This international registration set-up ensures EXANTE operates under the strictest standards of market content and in terms of protecting client money. Maintaining offices across continents also helps with providing a round the clock trading and customer service experience.
Their international footprint established, EXANTE was able to focus on their original aim: providing low cost, high latency trading solutions for a global client base. EXANTE operates as an execution-only broker on over $2 billion of client assets, with a client base drawn from across the investment management industry. With over 600,000 individual securities to trade in one multi-currency account, EXANTE provides a market-leading, accessible service.
One of the key differentiators for EXANTE is client service. Their human-staffed customer service line provides a real human response within three minutes, operating 24/24 seven days a week. This is unparalleled within the industry, and provides a vital safeguard in case of trouble at any hour. For a business with such a global clientele as EXANTE, extensive operating hours are essential. Likewise, EXANTE clients are serviced with an uncompromising focus on client privacy: only absolutely essential data is collected, and stored and handled in accordance with the strictest internal guidelines and international restrictions such as GDPR. This allows EXANTE clients complete peace of mind when trading, both in terms of technical and commercial support, as well as knowing their data is strictly protected.
Asides from his work with EXANTE, Knyazev has also developed EXANTECH, a laboratory and venture fund aimed at enhancing innovation within the securities market. This sort of investment boosts the client experience of new and existing traders, brings effective trading solutions to a wider market, and offers a space to develop new, innovative solutions. Knyazev’s extensive experience in research, commercial development and trading drive his deep and broad focus on global markets, expertise that ultimately benefits EXANTE’s clients. Constantly striving to introduce new products, access clients in different markets, all while ensuring strict compliance with market regulations and best standards in client security, EXANTE is at the forefront of modern execution trading. This service to clients is reflected in the numerous market awards won by the firm in their relatively short history. Knyazev and his partner-colleagues continue to push for further development and to perfect their client offering, with a bright future ahead for the company.
