Hub to lay off 20% of staff, sources say

Hub—the vendor set up by Man Group, Pimco, State Street, IHS Markit, Microsoft, and McKinsey to overhaul asset management operations—is in the process of downsizing. WatersTechnology has learned that the company is undergoing a staff restructuring that, once complete, will bring its total staff from about 100 people down to around 80 across its London and Delhi offices—50 of whom will be in India and the remaining 30 in the UK. 

The company says it is reviewing and optimizing its business and is looking at where it can invest or restructure to deliver on customer needs. Industry sources say that 20% of staff that have been—or are about to be—let go are from junior and support functions. 

According to LinkedIn, at the time of publication of this story, four of Hub’s current employees located in the UK have added the “open to work” hashtag to their profiles. Their roles are solution architect, platform engineer, principal software engineer, and people and culture lead. Their tenure at Hub ranges from nine months to two years. Meanwhile, six of Hub’s current employees located in India also have the “open to work” hashtag on their profiles. Their roles include associate to senior software engineer, and automation test architect/test manager with tenures ranging from one year and below. 

Hub has delivered on its first potential with a live-in-production referenceable customer. Now, it’s about making sure that it can sell what it has built to a wider marketplace

A source close to Hub

Paul Taylor, CEO of Hub, confirms that the company is scaling back on staff, adding that the move is part of the normal course of business and does not signal a change in the company’s commitment to growth. 

“We continue to review and optimize our business for opportunities to invest and bring our offerings to market more efficiently,” he tells WatersTechnology. “This optimization resulted in some wonderful colleagues leaving the Hub family. Structuring any business in an efficient manner is essential to deliver for customers and making the best use of our capital. As we actively focus on streamlining our shared services while increasing focus on commercial, engineering, and technology roles, we are excited about Hub’s continued growth.”

Taylor declined to comment on the exact number of employees being made redundant or their roles.

In October 2023, Pimco went live on the Hub platform for two products: Hub Trade and Hub Data. Hub Trade is a cross-asset class trade management service, while Hub Data is a data and reporting tool. 

“Although it’s still an early-stage company, it is live in production with its products—delivered to Pimco,” a source close to Hub says. “That’s a significant part of the continued roadmap for delivery. Hub has delivered on its first potential with a live-in-production referenceable customer. Now, it’s about making sure that it can sell what it has built to a wider marketplace.” 

However, two other sources—including a former employee of Man Group—say Hub has faced difficulties in some of its early projects. According to Hub’s website, only Pimco is mentioned as a client. 

Pimco declined to comment on its involvement with Hub, but a person close to the asset manager says the firm is unchanged on its commitment to Hub.

A spokesperson for Man Group says the investment manager “remains a supportive investor in the Hub platform, collaborating closely to help deliver its next stage of trade lifecycle management and data services.” When asked if Man Group was a user—or was planning to use—Hub Trade and/or Hub Data, they declined to comment. 

State Street did not respond to requests for comment by the time of publication. 

Promise and questions

In an interview with WatersTechnology last year, Taylor said the Hub platform has three overarching pillars for the middle and back offices: data governance and management, trade data ingestion, and real-time position-keeping. So far, Hub has released Hub Data and Hub Trade, representing two of the three pillars he described more than nine months ago. 

When asked about the real-time position-keeping pillar, today Taylor says it’s still on the table. 

“We built a world-class organization from scratch with live products like Hub Trade and Hub Data, both of which are being used actively. We have significant demand validated by the market to solve the problems we see almost every asset manager encounter in managing their data,” he says. “It is a longer-term goal to deliver on a position solution and we will keep the industry informed as we continue to prioritize our product.” 

The source close to Hub says that in conversations with the asset management community, the challenges are universal: managing a multitude of data inputs and connecting to a range of systems. There is demand for modern infrastructure to link those platforms better, allowing better flow of data from the front office to the back office, and vice versa. 

They add that Hub is looking to address how data is being managed across an asset management firm from a trade perspective or from a client reporting perspective.

The other technology companies that are investors in Hub—IHS Markit (which was acquired by S&P Global in late 2020) and Microsoft—have so far kept quiet about the level of involvement in the build-out of the platform. 

WatersTechnology understands that S&P Global (through IHS Markit) is still an investor in Hub, but S&P Global declined to comment for this story. Microsoft similarly declined to comment on its involvement in the company. 

Job cuts are relatively common in financial services firms and technology companies. For example, Citigroup reportedly said it will reduce its headcount by 20,000 people over two years. BlackRock, too, is laying off 600 employees. And according to layoffs.fyi, a site tracking tech layoffs, over 50,000 employees from tech companies have lost their jobs in 2024 so far.