Chicago-headquartered trading platform vendor Trading Technologies has jump-started its implementation of artificial intelligence and machine learning within its portfolio of offerings with the strategic acquisition of Neurensic.

The two-year-old fintech startup has developed an AI-based platform that identifies complex patterns of trading behaviors across multiple markets in near real time, according to TT officials.

In the past 12 months Trading Technologies CEO Rick Lane has seen AI and machine learning become “a real thing” across the entire trading ecosystem, he said during a press conference regarding the purchase.

“Machine learning and deep learning platforms, as well as APIs, are becoming more accessible,” he said. “I expect that you will hear more about machine learning not just across the trade surveillance space but the trading space as the months go by.”

Lane noted that TT has been investing in AI and machine learning research at a small scale but viewed the acquisition to fast-track the vendor’s ongoing efforts.

“We are not going back and re-building the wheel here,” he said. “The technology that Neurensic has is solid and something a lot of firms are not doing because it is hard to do. We think the core parts of the model itself, the machine learning components, are something that will fit nicely in our ongoing plans.”

Trading Technologies and Neurensic began their purchase conversation in the spring and closed the deal on October 6. The firm declined to reveal the terms of the transaction beyond that its acquisition of the “functional components” of Neurensic’s business as well as a few key employees.

Over the next six months, Trading Technologies plans to install and integrate Neurensic’s platform further with its existing SaaS-based product portfolio.

“Neurensic’s customer base and our’s pretty much overlap,” said Lane. “From a technology-integration standpoint, most of its business is integrated with TT software. We expect to hit the ground running.”