S&P Global completes $1.8bn acquisition of With Intelligence to transform private markets data visibility

S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) has completed its $1.8 billion acquisition of With Intelligence, a provider of proprietary data and workflow tools for alternative assets, marking a significant expansion of its capabilities in private markets intelligence. The transaction, first announced in October 2025, was executed through a deal with a consortium led by Motive Partners, a private investment firm specializing in financial technology and data-driven platforms.

The acquisition aims to establish S&P Global as one of the most comprehensive providers of data and analytics across the private capital lifecycle, extending its influence well beyond public markets into asset classes that remain fragmented, opaque, and underserved from a data infrastructure standpoint. By integrating With Intelligence’s data assets, spanning over 70,000 funds, 30,000 investors, and 350,000 transactions, with its existing platforms like Capital IQ Pro, iLEVEL, and WSO, S&P Global is positioning itself at the core of what is projected to become a $40 trillion alternative assets market by the end of the decade.

According to S&P Global President and Chief Executive Officer Martina Cheung, the acquisition underscores the firm’s mission to provide investors with “essential intelligence” across increasingly complex financial ecosystems. With Intelligence’s fund-level coverage and LP–GP network mapping capabilities will now augment S&P Global’s suite of tools used by asset allocators, fund managers, intermediaries, and advisory firms across global markets.

What strategic advantages does S&P Global gain from acquiring With Intelligence?

The acquisition significantly strengthens S&P Global’s private markets proposition at a time when alternative assets are moving closer to the center of institutional portfolio strategies. The integration of With Intelligence enables S&P Global to deliver a unified data environment across front-office deal origination, middle-office portfolio monitoring, and back-office compliance reporting.

Founded by Charlie Kerr in 1998, With Intelligence has built a differentiated model focused on proprietary insights sourced directly from limited partners and general partners. Its dataset includes deep intelligence on fund performance, relationship history, manager mandates, and asset flows—areas that complement S&P Global’s existing public markets infrastructure. In 2025, With Intelligence is expected to generate approximately $130 million in revenue with annual contract value growth in the high teens.

The combined offering will enable institutional clients to visualize private equity and credit performance, benchmark against proprietary datasets, and integrate those insights into real-time investment decision-making. S&P Global’s existing platforms such as iLEVEL and WSO will now be further enriched with granular, fund-specific data. This is expected to streamline performance reporting, enhance valuations, and offer deeper transparency into portfolio risks—key requirements for allocators managing large pools of illiquid assets.

How does this reshape the competitive landscape for alternatives intelligence platforms?

Analysts tracking financial data infrastructure believe the transaction gives S&P Global a structural advantage over platforms like PitchBook, Preqin, and Bloomberg, which have historically dominated parts of the alternatives data value chain but lack full workflow integration.

S&P Global’s end-to-end architecture, combining proprietary data, fund performance benchmarks, manager intelligence, and integrated workflow tools, is viewed as a differentiator. It enables asset managers, consultants, and institutional allocators to conduct manager due diligence, fund monitoring, and valuations within a single digital environment.

Moreover, S&P Global has recently accelerated product innovation within private markets. It launched a collaboration with Cambridge Associates and Mercer to develop private market performance analytics, expected to enter beta by the end of 2025. This follows a tie-up with NewVest to launch the S&P Private Equity 50 Indices, which benchmarks the performance of 50 of the largest private equity funds.

The integration of With Intelligence complements these initiatives by providing real-time fund and manager data that feeds directly into index construction, benchmarking models, and portfolio allocation frameworks. This deepens S&P Global’s ability to serve a growing base of institutional clients seeking data consistency, transparency, and benchmarking clarity in opaque asset classes.

What does the deal mean for general partners, limited partners, and consultants?

The acquisition brings significant upside for all major participants in the private capital ecosystem. For general partners, the integration offers broader distribution and benchmarking opportunities via S&P Global’s global reach and analytics capabilities. For limited partners and investment allocators, the combination promises richer intelligence on manager relationships, fund performance, and asset-level transaction data.

The deal also streamlines how consultants and investment advisory firms access, compare, and recommend alternative strategies. With Intelligence’s database of over 30,000 managers and direct insights from LPs will now be embedded into S&P Global’s broader valuation, portfolio monitoring, and performance reporting frameworks—effectively eliminating silos in how fund data is accessed and used.

From a compliance and operational standpoint, the acquisition brings tighter alignment between front-office analytics and back-office reconciliation. Workflow tools like iLEVEL and WSO will now be able to pull in real-time updates from With Intelligence’s fund universe, providing clients with automated exposure tracking and performance analytics across their private asset portfolios.

What are the financial terms, investor flows, and outlook following the transaction?

The all-cash transaction was valued at $1.8 billion and involved a sale by a group led by Motive Partners, which had become the majority shareholder in With Intelligence in 2023. Other investors included Intermediate Capital Group, which maintained a significant minority stake since 2020.

Institutional response to the deal has been largely positive. S&P Global shares remained stable following the announcement, with modest upward momentum seen over a five-day trading window, suggesting market confidence in the long-term strategic rationale. Analysts covering the stock continue to assign a “buy” or “outperform” rating, noting that private markets are a critical expansion vertical for S&P Global given its mature presence in ratings and public equity data.

The transaction is expected to be margin-accretive over time, although initial integration costs could modestly weigh on near-term operating income. However, analysts believe the value of recurring subscription revenue from With Intelligence’s approximately 3,000 institutional clients globally more than offsets integration friction.

The combination could also accelerate cross-selling opportunities across S&P Global’s Market Intelligence division, which includes other high-growth platforms such as SNL Financial, Panjiva, and Kensho. With Intelligence will formally operate within this division under the leadership of Saugata Saha, who serves as both President of Market Intelligence and Chief Enterprise Data Officer.

How does this acquisition reflect broader trends in financial data consolidation?

This transaction highlights the ongoing consolidation trend across the financial data ecosystem, where analytics firms are racing to build full-stack platforms that serve every function of the investment lifecycle. Whether through vertical integration of workflow tools or horizontal expansion of datasets, scale and proprietary intelligence are becoming competitive necessities.

S&P Global’s move mirrors similar plays in adjacent segments. Moody’s has expanded its alternative credit and ESG offerings. MSCI has deepened its exposure to real asset data and private fund benchmarks. Nasdaq and Intercontinental Exchange are also extending their analytics ecosystems into alternative asset classes.

However, S&P Global’s approach stands out for its combination of high-trust legacy infrastructure with innovative, niche intelligence platforms. The firm has a long history of building market confidence through its ratings and benchmarks businesses, and this acquisition reinforces its ambition to bring the same standards of rigor and transparency into the private capital world.

What is the long-term outlook for S&P Global’s private markets strategy after the With Intelligence acquisition?

Going forward, the integration of With Intelligence is expected to serve as a foundational layer in S&P Global’s broader private capital roadmap. The firm aims to be more than a data provider—it wants to become the system of record for institutional investors navigating private asset classes.

This includes expanding into new geographies, covering more illiquid strategies, and embedding AI-driven analytics into its data offerings. The firm also continues to explore partnerships and beta programs that can further deepen its role in shaping how capital flows into alternatives.

With private markets set to account for an increasingly larger share of institutional portfolios in the next decade, and regulatory demands for transparency increasing globally, S&P Global’s acquisition of With Intelligence may prove to be not only strategic but transformative for the structure of modern financial data.

What are the key takeaways from S&P Global’s $1.8 billion acquisition of With Intelligence?

• S&P Global has finalized its $1.8 billion acquisition of With Intelligence from a consortium led by Motive Partners to deepen its data coverage in private markets.

• The acquisition adds intelligence on approximately 70,000 funds, 30,000 investors, and 350,000 deals to S&P Global’s analytics ecosystem, spanning private equity, credit, infrastructure, and hedge funds.

• With Intelligence is expected to generate $130 million in revenue in 2025, with annual contract value growth in the high teens, contributing to recurring subscription growth.

• S&P Global aims to deliver a unified platform across front-, middle-, and back-office functions for LPs, GPs, and advisors through integration with Capital IQ Pro, iLEVEL, and WSO.

• The deal follows recent S&P Global collaborations with Cambridge Associates, Mercer, and NewVest to launch benchmarks and analytics tools tailored to private markets.

• Analysts expect the acquisition to give S&P Global a competitive edge over Preqin, PitchBook, and other private markets data providers by offering end-to-end intelligence.

• With Intelligence’s proprietary LP-GP relationship data and fund benchmarking tools will enhance S&P Global’s ability to serve institutional investors and consultants.

• The acquisition is part of S&P Global’s long-term strategy to become the primary operating system for institutional capital navigating illiquid and alternative asset classes.