Business information first
Acuris has been keeping financial professionals one step ahead of their markets since 1999.
We’re a company that was founded on solving a financial industry problem – being able to understand and predict what’s going to happen next in a specific market. The story began in 1999 with Mergermarket. This product was set up on one simple insight: there is a great deal of information in the M&A market, but very little intelligence. Lots of “noise”, not enough “signal”. So the Mergermarket team hired specialist reporters to talk directly to market insiders – the people actually doing the deals, or advising on them – and then published what they learned via a subscription-only online service.
An idea with traction
This gave subscribers the “actionable” intelligence they were missing in the market – signals that help them make the fastest and most profitable decisions. It was an idea that rapidly gained traction as people realised the advantage this sort of intelligence gave them. So in the 18 years that followed, we extended it into many other niches – fixed income, infrastructure, equities, compliance – through acquisition and organic growth.
It was challenging to build up the large team of expert, specialist reporters and analysts that was needed. Creating this “critical mass” of expertise took time. But today, we’ve grown to become a significant player in our market, with revenues of almost £200m and 1,300 employees worldwide. And with our renaming as Acuris, we have created a strong information brand that reflects our skills and qualities: acumen, curation and insight.
Scale and influence
We’d like to think we’ve been nominated as one of the 20 Most Influential FinTech Companies for 2018 because of this growing scale and influence. It could also be because our proprietary, forward-looking intelligence is something that no other vendor can offer with the same scale or depth. Combined with our data resources, it means that in many sectors, an Acuris brand is the first source financial professionals turn to when they want insight into their specialist area. And we’ve also kept a consistent focus throughout our history, doing one thing – niche financial intelligence – and doing it well.
It’s this combination of reach and focus that sets Acuris apart. Having a global network of specialist journalists and analysts means we can give subscribers unique insight into specialist financial markets. The data that we collect has also built up over time into a powerful resource for financial professionals who want to back up the intelligence we provide with in-depth analysis. As a strong, standalone, focused group, Acuris brings together many information brands into a portfolio of products that all have the same purpose: helping financial professionals to make the best decisions based on the strongest evidence.
Real insight depends on people
What next? Markets and technology are evolving faster than ever, and we think that artificial intelligence and machine learning will continue to make more things possible in our markets, arming financial professionals with even more predictive intelligence. We aim to use this technology as much as possible to benefit our subscribers. Yet we also believe that the “human angle” that has driven our growth for the past 18 years will remain a critical source of advantage in financial markets. As one of our senior managers has said:
“It’s impossible for a computer to get inside the mind of a CEO or CFO. Human interaction is essential if you want real insight into strategic decisions and to be able to interpret what’s happening – and what could happen next.”
