Data giant S&P Global, best known for its credit ratings, is strengthening its position in the fast-growing market for private and alternative investments with the acquisition of the London-based platform With Intelligence for 1.8 billion dollars. The seller is Motive Partners, founded by Belgian fintech leader Rob Heyvaert.
Founded in 1998, With Intelligence specializes in data and analytics on private, non-listed markets such as private equity, infrastructure, real estate, and private credit. The platform serves around 3,000 clients worldwide, including family offices, private equity investors, and hedge funds. Its massive database contains information on 30,000 investors, an equal number of fund managers, and about 70,000 funds.
That attracted the attention of S&P (Standard & Poor’s) Global, which wanted to expand its presence in private markets to complement its data services on listed securities and its traditional credit analyses.
It’s a strong match, said Heyvaert (photo). “S&P Global is the right home to take With Intelligence’s success to the next level and to strengthen its role as a hub in the data revolution surrounding private markets,” the Motive Partners CEO said in the press release.
Motive Partners is striking gold with the deal. The New York-based fintech investment firm paid 400 million pounds two years ago for an 80 percent stake in With Intelligence. That stake is now worth roughly 1.44 billion dollars, or more than 1 billion pounds.
The ‘great convergence’
The acquisition highlights the growing interest in non-listed assets as investors search for higher returns. S&P Global points to forecasts by several consultants predicting that the market for private and alternative investments will surpass 40 trillion dollars by 2030—almost double its size from last year.
A recent report from McKinsey expects “a great convergence,” in which the boundaries between public and private markets will blur as liquidity and tradability of private assets increase.
But there is still plenty of progress to be made in data management, said Motive Partners, particularly among family offices. “While these offices are managing increasingly complex portfolios—ranging from private equity and venture capital to real estate and digital assets—their technological infrastructure hasn’t kept pace. Most of them still just use Excel.”