S&P Global’s Acquisition of Kensho Technologies Hits Early Milestone; Expands Private Company Data Offering to Clients

Collaboration with Crunchbase enhances S&P Global Market Intelligence’s position as the go-to resource for private company data

S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) announced today that the Company has hit an exciting milestone in an alternative data linking project in collaboration with Kensho Technologies Inc. (“Kensho”), acquired by SPGI in April, and Crunchbase, a well-known destination for data on some the world’s most innovative companies. Leveraging Kensho’s machine learning algorithms, S&P Global Market Intelligence platform users can now access robust information on privately held companies licensed from Crunchbase.

“The Private Company Data space is an area of enormous growth and of high value to many of our clients who are particularly interested in being able to identify early stage, venture backed companies prime for acquisition or investment,” noted Mike Chinn, Executive Vice President of Data and Technology Innovation at S&P Global and President of S&P Global Market Intelligence. “Given the complexity and opaqueness of this data, we had originally expected project completion to take several months. I’m thrilled that in less than a month after our acquisition of Kensho, S&P Global has already hit this major milestone, strengthening our ability to meet the demand of clients at an accelerated pace as we become the go-to resource for comprehensive private company data.”

“This is a significant milestone for S&P Global. By partnering with Kensho and Crunchbase on this project, we have fast-tracked our ability to deliver essential intelligence for our clients at the speed the market demands,” remarked Nick Cafferillo, S&P Global’s Chief Technology Officer. “The Kensho linking capability enables us to expand quickly into new markets by allowing us to onboard new data sets, in this case private company data. This also reinforces how emerging technologies like machine learning can have a massive impact on the way we work by increasing our internal efficiencies.”

By leveraging Crunchbase data, coupled with Kensho’s machine learning algorithms, S&P Global’s ability to provide expedited insights is particularly valuable for companies at the venture stage, allowing for greater accuracy in making informed investment decisions or for those organizations interested in acquiring or investing in these private companies.

“This is a perfect first demonstration of what Kensho and S&P Global can do together. With just a few days’ effort, we were able to extend S&P’s leadership as one of the world’s premier providers of company data, using artificial intelligence,” noted Daniel Nadler, CEO, Kensho. “And this is just the beginning: we developed the technology in a reusable way that will enable S&P Global to deliver ever more complex datasets to their clients more rapidly than ever before.”

About Kensho Technologies Inc.:  Kensho is an award-winning machine intelligence company founded out of Harvard University in 2013. Kensho’s early team members came from veteran roles at Google, as well as from academia. Kensho applies AI for real-world impact across government and commercial institutions around the world. For more information, visit www.kensho.com.

About S&P Global Market Intelligence: At S&P Global Market Intelligence, we know that not all information is important—some of it is vital. We integrate financial and industry data, research and news into tools that help track performance, generate alpha, identify investment ideas, understand competitive and industry dynamics, perform valuations and assess credit risk. Investment professionals, government agencies, corporations and universities globally can gain the intelligence essential to making business and financial decisions with conviction.

About Crunchbase: At Crunchbase we believe that your decisions deserve the best data. Crunchbase is the leading destination for millions of users to discover industry trends, investments, and news about global companies—from startups to the Fortune 1000.  Crunchbase is about more than just data – it’s about community.  Crunchbase was founded to be the master record of data on the world’s most innovative companies. We built a unique and scalable approach to data collection leveraging a strong community of contributors, the largest venture partner network, and in-house data teams armed with powerful machine learning. Thanks to an amazing (and growing!) team, we’re creating the single source of business intelligence.

Source: S&P Global Press Release