REDI Global Technologies has come a long way from its roots at trading specialist Spear Leeds Kellogg, followed by more than a decade as Goldman Sach’s flagship execution business, and finally metamorphosing into an independent company in 2013.

The company’s glide path reflects the growing use of automation, not only in trade execution but in the entire pre- and post-trade lifecycle. Its core product, the REDIPlus Execution Management System (EMS), is a broker-neutral system which provides a single platform for order routing of equities, futures and options across the Americas, Europe and Asia.

“REDIplus is an EMS which allows our clients, who are buy side hedge funds, institutions, broker-dealers–a diverse set of users—to trade electronically across various asset classes and regions,” said Josh Schubkegel, REDI’s chief technology officer. “One of the core value propositions of REDI is to be a true broker-neutral platform. This has been an ongoing trend in the industry, where platforms that had been owned by brokers are becoming neutral. It’s moving toward the world that clients have been pushing for, which is to use REDI across all the various brokers and execution venues they want to trade with.”

In July 2013, Goldman Sachs sold a majority equity interest in REDI to a consortium of investors including BofA Merrill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citadel and Lightyear Capital. Goldman Sachs retains a significant minority equity stake in the company.

Credit Suisse’s Advanced Execution Services (AES), a leader in the algorithmic trading space, has recently joined REDIplus, adding its global reach and cross-asset capabilities to the platform. Credit Suisse’s AES provides algorithms in more than 40 countries on six continents.

“REDI offers Credit Suisse a new way to serve investors,” said Pankil Patel, co-head of Credit Suisse’s AES U.S. “It’s a new way to offer the wide variety of algorithmic tactics that allow our clients to reduce their market impact, improve their performance versus benchmarks and focus on the bigger picture.”

Becoming independent opens up avenues to REDI that previously might not have been available. The Credit Suisse story is a validation of that strategy.

“Credit Suisse is a key player. They have a tremendous offering from an electronic trading perspective on a global scale,” Schubkegel said. “Their full suite of direct market, singles, and portfolio trading as well as algorithmic trading offerings is now fully enabled and offered on the REDI platform. Not only does it give us more of an offering to compete, it also benefits our clients. They can use the same REDI platform to gain access to Credit Suisse directly.”

While OMS and EMS platforms have been adding new features and functionality over the past few years, these don’t necessarily translate into actual innovation or an improvement in user experience.

“Historically, the industry has been very siloed, everybody taking their own proprietary approach,” said Schubkegel. “One of the major selling points of REDI is to provide a single access point to the various brokers and markets. We believe REDI as a technology vendor and software provider can provide economies of scale, cost efficiencies, and innovative functionality through the mechanisms of the way we’ve built and deployed software.”