Last week, New York-based BlueMatrix, a leading investment research authoring platform, announced that it has acquired Toronto-based Street Context, a provider of email intelligence solutions for the global capital markets.
About the BlueMatrix / Street Context Acquisition
Last week, New York-based investment research authoring provider BlueMatrix announced that it has acquired Street Context, an email management provider for capital markets firms. Terms of the deal were undisclosed.
BlueMatrix management explained that the combined company will integrate research authoring, financial data, and consumption analytics into a unified platform, enabling financial institutions to deliver more targeted communications to their clients.
Founded in 1999, Durham, NC-based BlueMatrix produces a publishing platform to help sell-side and independent research analysts write and distribute financial analysis and reports to their buy-side clients. The company’s fully integrated and cloud-based solutions provide end-to-end coverage of the highly regulated investment research production workflow, including content creation, global compliance approval, distribution, hosting and analytics for more than 1,000 financial services customers across 70 countries.
In January 2024, software oriented private equity firm, Thoma Bravo made a strategic investment in BlueMatrix, adding it to its portfolio of more than 455 companies representing over US$255 billion in enterprise value (including control and non-control investments). Currently, the firm retains investment interests in 43 companies, of which they were lead investors in 33 firms.
Street Context was founded in 2012 to help sell-side brokerage firms distribute and manage content and analysis, such as formal investment research and market commentary. Street Context also provides an email intelligence platform that helps buy and sell-side firms manage contact lists and track engagement analytics. The firm currently serves over 5,000 users at more than 150 firms located in more than 40 countries around the world.
Patricia Horotan, CEO of BlueMatrix explained the rationale for this acquisition saying, “Bringing together Street Context and BlueMatrix is a transformative step for our company and our clients. This acquisition accelerates our ability to deliver unparalleled insights and solutions, enabling our clients to make more informed decisions and strengthen their client relationships. It also extends our global footprint, solidifying us as the industry standard.”
Our Take
BlueMatrix’s acquisition of Street Context makes a great deal of sense as the deal puts together two of the most well-known research technology players in the industry that address the most critical aspects of the investment research workflow.
In fact, Adam Solomon, a Partner at Thoma Bravo, an investor in BlueMatrix explained the key benefits of the deal saying, “As a major consumer of information in the capital markets, and broader financial services industry, we understand the power of bringing the BlueMatrix and Street Context platforms together. We believe the combined company has the potential to rethink and reinvent how information moves through the industry. Together, BlueMatrix and Street Context will be better positioned to serve clients while continuing to grow and innovate.”
It will be interesting to watch these two firms as they integrate their offerings and develop new and innovative services for research producers and consumers on the sell and buy-side. In addition, we would not be surprised to see BlueMatrix acquire other research technology players in 2025, particularly given Thoma Bravo’s backing.
For more news about alternative data, investment research, and investment related FinTech, click here to sign up for our free ResearchWatch Weekly newsletter, or click here to subscribe to our proprietary ResearchWatch news and commentary service.