Originally founded as LAVA Trading Inc. in 1999, the company was a pioneer in developing sophisticated smart order routing (SOR) and direct market access (DMA) technologies. LAVA provided institutional clients, such as investment banks and broker-dealers, with low-latency solutions for trading equities, options, and foreign exchange. After being acquired by Citigroup in 2004, the technology was later sold to SR Labs in 2012, which subsequently rebranded as Vela Trading Technologies. In 2021, Vela was acquired by Exegy Inc., a leading provider of market data and execution solutions. Today, the LAVA platform continues as a core component of Exegy's execution solutions, offering a comprehensive suite of tools for efficient and resilient electronic trading.