Notable Data & Analytics M&A - April 16-21, 2024
TL;DR - Three transactions in Healthcare, ESG, and Financial Data & Analytics
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April 18 - Anne Wojcicki, Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder, and Chair of the Board of Directors of 23andMe, is considering making a proposal to acquire all of the outstanding shares of 23andMe that she does not currently own.
Since its IPO in 2021, 23andMe’s value has tumbled.
From a market cap of $6bn soon after its de-SPAC, the company is currently worth $231m.
Although primarily known as a Consumer Internet business, there’s a huge opportunity here to capitalise on 23andMe’s data set, which has great potential for healthcare and pharmaceutical purposes.
It will be interesting to see in the coming days whether an alternative offer emerges, and with which investment partners Anne Wojcicki is partnering.
April 17 - GRESB, a leading global provider of sustainability standards and benchmarks for real assets, announced a majority investment from General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm, through the firm’s BeyondNetZero climate growth fund.
General Atlantic will acquire its stake from existing shareholder Summit Partners, which will retain a minority position in GRESB following close of the transaction.
We mentioned BeyondNetZero a few posts ago, when we looked at investments in the Energy Transition space and Benchmark Mineral Intelligence in particular.
The investment in real estate and infrastructure investments benchmarking provider GRESB is a great fit with BeyondNetZero’s strategy. GRESB has grown substantially since Summit backed an MBO from certification body GBCI in November 2020.
Expect some substantial bolt-on acquisitions in the near future.
Congratulations to my ex-colleagues Olena Sokolowska and Louis Vercruysse at Moelis on acting on the sellside for Summit.
Check out this interview with BeyondNetZero’s CEO, and former CEO of IHS Markit, Lance Uggla, for more detail on their focus:
April 16 - AI-based analysis platform for global securities Bridgewise raised $21m in a funding round led by SIX Group with participation from Group11 and L4 Venture Builder.
Founded in 2019, Bridgewise is one to watch in the Financial Data & Analytics space. A great example of how AI enables upstart competitors to enter a market dominated by the large players and provide instant coverage across the entirety of global stocks.
Read Joe Schmidt at Andreessen Horowitz’s recent thoughtpiece on the use of AI in Financial Data & Analytics for more ideas of what disruption is to come.
Useful content consumed in the last few days:
My good friend Malcolm Moore, recently appointed Energy Editor at the FT, has published an interesting article about the use of data and AI by commodity traders;
Another family friend, Charlie Kerr, the CEO of With Intelligence, tells the story of the business’s development into a £400m EV alternative assets data provider: