S&P Global announced it has agreed to acquire With Intelligence from a group led by Motive Partners for $1.8 billion in cash. The acquisition significantly enhances S&P Global’s capabilities across private markets data, analytics, and workflow solutions, positioning the company as one of the most comprehensive providers of private markets intelligence globally.
The transaction will integrate With Intelligence’s proprietary datasets, insights, and benchmarks with S&P Global’s extensive expertise in ratings, benchmarks, analytics, and workflow technology. Together, the combined platform will serve the entire private markets ecosystem—General Partners (GPs), Limited Partners (LPs), intermediaries, and advisors—at a time when alternative assets are projected to approach $40 trillion by the end of the decade.
Founded in 1998 by Charlie Kerr, With Intelligence provides exclusive, insight-driven data across private equity, private credit, hedge funds, infrastructure, real estate, and family offices. Its coverage includes approximately 30,000 investors, 30,000 managers, 70,000 funds, and 350,000 deals, making it one of the most comprehensive sources of alternative investment intelligence available.
Following Motive Partners’ investment in 2023 and continued participation by ICG and management, With Intelligence has rapidly expanded to serve 3,000 institutional clients worldwide. In 2025, the company is expected to generate $130 million in revenue, with annual contract value growth in the high teens.
This acquisition builds on S&P Global’s ongoing expansion into private markets following initiatives such as its collaboration with Cambridge Associates and Mercer to launch private markets performance analytics and the introduction of the S&P Private Equity 50 Indices in partnership with NewVest.
By integrating With Intelligence’s data with its platforms such as S&P Capital IQ Pro, iLEVEL, Valuations, and WSO, S&P Global aims to provide deeper connectivity and end-to-end solutions across the Front, Middle, and Back Office.
Advisors: Clifford Chance is acting as S&P Global’s legal advisor; Citi is acting as S&P Global’s lead advisor. Jefferies also served as a financial advisor to S&P Global. Proskauer and Joelson are acting as With Intelligence’s legal advisors, and Centerview Partners is acting as With Intelligence’s financial advisor. Oliver Wyman acted as strategic advisor to With Intelligence and McKinsey & Company advised S&P Global in this transaction.
KEY QUOTES:
“Private markets is one of the most dynamic and fast-growing areas of global finance and providing innovative and differentiated data, benchmarks and workflow solutions in this space is a key strategic priority for S&P Global. With the addition of With Intelligence, we are expanding the trusted legacy of S&P Global into private markets—bringing the same rigor, data quality and analytical depth that have defined our leadership. We look forward to welcoming the talented team from With Intelligence, as together, we’ll create the most comprehensive provider of private markets intelligence.”
Martina Cheung, President and CEO, S&P Global
“We’re deeply excited about With Intelligence’s proprietary data, insights and expertise—and even more so about what this combination unlocks for our customers and the broader private markets. With Intelligence’s capabilities complement our portfolio and enhance our ability to deliver the clarity and confidence needed in today’s increasingly complex private markets.”
Saugata Saha, President of S&P Global Market Intelligence and Chief Enterprise Data Officer, S&P Global
“This is testament to the hard work of our fantastic team, including our partnership with Motive Partners, in building a differentiated business within private markets and alternatives to power smarter investment decisions, and we look forward to bringing our data and intelligence to a broader customer group as part of S&P Global. Joining S&P Global is a key milestone in our growth and one we are very excited about as it allows us to accelerate our strategy on a global scale by combining our proprietary datasets, benchmarks and relationships across GPs and LPs with S&P Global’s legacy, trust and reach.”
Charlie Kerr, Founder and CEO of With Intelligence
“Our partnership with Charlie and the broader With Intelligence team exemplifies Motive’s Investor-Operator-Innovator model in action, as we’ve built an extremely successful business at the heart of one of the most dynamic transformations in financial services. This transaction is a case study of the impact of our proven model, and a powerful proof point of our investment lifecycle thesis on data and analytics. Together with the With Intelligence team, we transformed a high-quality information services business into a true data and analytics company with real scarcity value. S&P Global is the right home to take With Intelligence’s success to its next phase — cementing its role at the center of the private markets data revolution.”
Rob Heyvaert, Founder and Managing Partner of Motive Partners
