Sector Spotlight: B2B data

As the world demands more and more information, the businesses supplying it are in ever-greater demand. The right private equity backing can help them grow faster.

Businesses run off data. Few in today’s world fail to recognise its potential for boosting success, and the uncertainty of the last few years has inspired many erstwhile laggards to harness the information they have to their advantage, an often turn to external providers to boost access to intelligence.

“Whether identifying opportunities or providing a better customer experience, data provides infinite exciting possibilities for growth,” enthuses Sergio Ferrarini, Partner and Head of Technology at Inflexion. “With the support of AI, the speed businesses can harness this has increased exponentially, and we work with our portfolio to embrace this exciting opportunity.”

Indeed while many firms see AI as a disruptive threat, those with proprietary data stand to benefit if the AI is steered correctly. Data from Arma Partners, a corporate finance firm, suggests they are more resilient and defensible in the face of Generative AI, with cost and revenue enhancements in data and information businesses possible with careful strategic positioning.

While data businesses have understood the value of their mission-critical offering for some time, not all are clear on how best to meet today’s increasing demand, whether growing geographically, acquiring other businesses or embracing AI.

“Data businesses have become tech businesses. Data is now delivered through software, often deeply embedded in company workflows,” says Sergio. “In the age of AI data has become a lot more valuable, and can be used more powerfully and monetised more effectively. But it requires embracing and investing behind these new opportunities; this is what we help our portfolio companies do.”

Inflexion is working with a number of data businesses to help them serve this large and growing addressable market. So valuable is data that some large corporates are even realising the potential of certain units and spinning them off as independent entities. A selection of Inflexion’s successful partnerships in the data segment are included:

GlobalData  Plc chose Inflexion’s minority Partnership Capital solution to carve out its healthcare division in 2023.

In 2023 magic circle law firm Allen & Overy (A&O) partnered with Inflexion’s Partnership Capital fund and US-based investor Endicott Capital to carve-out its data business, aosphere.

Curinos was created in 2021 when FTSE 100 business Informa Plc chose to work with Inflexion Partnership Capital to bring together two complementary businesses.

Infront was delisted from the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2021 by Inflexion, which has been supporting its growth organically and acquisitively.

GlobalData

At the end of 2023 Inflexion partnered with GlobalData Plc to carve out its Healthcare division as a standalone entity in a transaction valuing the business at £1.1 billion. The data business is the largest division of GlobalData, listed on London’s AIM, and employs over 1,000 people across 10 countries. Its subscription service offers a one-stop data solution for over 2,000 global customers across large global pharma, pharma & biotech, pharma suppliers, professional services and medical devices manufacturers.

This transaction allowed GlobalData to retain a majority stake in the business as it works with Inflexion to accelerate organic growth primarily through securing new clients globally and further cross-selling to existing clients, continuing to invest in AI, product and content, as well as pursuing selective M&A.

aosphere

Last year Allen & Overy (A&O) partnered with Inflexion’s Partnership Capital fund and US-based investor Endicott Capital. The transaction enabled A&O to retain a significant stake in aosphere, the business it created in 2002, with Inflexion chosen for its proven success in supporting corporate carve-outs and data businesses. Its track record of extricating systems and building standalone new ones means aosphere’s leadership team can continue to focus on its day-to-day business and look ahead to future growth as an independent entity providing clients with the most comprehensive, reliable, and user-friendly legal and regulatory information and services.

Aosphere also has full access to Inflexion’s value acceleration resource. Plans include creating a scaled, global regulatory data business across a range of cross-jurisdictional topics, with investment earmarked for strengthening and expanding its product. Aosphere is also looking to grow the business in the US and through acquisition.

Curinos

In 2021, FTSE 100 business Informa PLC chose to work with Inflexion Partnership Capital to create a market-leading financial data and technology provider by bringing together two complementary businesses: Informa Financial Intelligence’s Financial Benchmarking & Omnichannel Experience (FBX) and Novantas Inc, a financial data services company. The business rebranded as Curinos, with the carve-out and subsequent integration creating a financial data and technology leader.

The team are working alongside Inflexion and Informa to great effect to launch new products and invest in sales to drive adoption of outsourced analytics. Inflexion’s digital team is supporting the creation of a unified data fabric to support product integration and boost cross-selling, and building out the management bench has been crucial to underpin the accelerated growth, with Inflexion’s in-house talent team supporting the appointments of a CFO, CRO, CTO and CHRO.

The opportunity ahead is exciting as the banking industry is on the cusp of a new era of mass personalisation. Financial institutions increasingly understand that a positive customer experience matters, and Curinos believes that personalising it allows for greater flexibility with the value proposition.

This belief is driving the business’s strategy, and Curinos is utilising AI to support its offering to help banks drive better user experiences with more frequent and tailored engagements with their customers.

Infront

In 2021 Inflexion delisted Infront from the Oslo Stock Exchange. Infront provides a suite of data and software solutions that help wealth managers, banks and asset managers manage their workflows. The company serves more than 3,600 customers with over 90,000 professional users and employs 500 people across 13 countries in Europe.

Following the investment, Inflexion’s talent team helped to enhance Infront’s c-suite and appointed an experienced Chair. Additionally, Inflexion is using its experience in M&A to support the management team to accelerate their acquisitive growth ambitions and deliver synergies from recent acquisitions, whilst continuing to invest to grow the business. The recent acquisition of Assetmax in Switzerland has cemented its WealthTech position in DACH.

Part of this involves taking a data-led approach to its own business, which allowed the business to double down on its areas of strength, particularly within the WealthTech space. “This helped our business priorities become much clearer: we are a software company first and foremost, says Zlatko Vucetic, CEO. “We have done a lot of work to understand the commercial infrastructure, as a result of which we’ve introduced an Inside Sales team based in Amsterdam, and we’re using latest AI tools to help drive efficiency throughout our sales and marketing processes.”   

The Inflexion team has significant experience in supporting the growth of a broad range of data companies, with current investments including GlobalData, Healthcare, aosphere, Curinos and Infront. All have access to Inflexion’s value acceleration strategies of digital enhancement, international expansion, M&A, commercial effectiveness, sustainability and talent management.