Pico Buys Corvil To Offer Customers Analytics-as-a-Service

Aiming to provide customers with more insight into trading and information technology operations, Pico, the global capital markets technology service provider inked a deal to acquire Corvil, an analytics company hailing out of Dublin, Ireland.

Last week Pico, which is backed by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, UBS, and Wells Fargo, among other minority investors, announced the deal, which it said brings together two companies that are focused on helping clients get a competitive advantage over rivals in part by accessing real-time data.

“Corvil’s reputation is second to none for innovation, quality, and data analytics in the financial markets, and we have come to rely on their data to support mission-critical systems,” said Jarrod Yuster, founder and CEO of Pico in a recent press release announcing the deal. “With Corvil, we can deliver full transparency into our clients’ trading and IT operations while addressing the challenges that come with rapid expansion into new global markets.” Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Once the deal is complete, Pico will have a client list of more than 400 banks, exchanges, asset managers, financial technology vendors and trading firms spanning five continents. The company will emerge with a staff of 375, many of whom are experts in automation, machine learning, and data science. The combined company will operate under the Pico brand with Corvil Chief Executive Donald Byrne becoming Chief Technology Officer. He will report to Yuster and will be in charge of product, marketing, and data science on a global basis.

Customers will be able to access existing Corvil products as well as a soon to be launched Corvil-as-a-Service platform to deploy, configure and operate Corvil environments. The platform is designed to make the onboarding easier and remove any need for upfront training when accessing the analytics-as-service cloud offering. “We see a new era of financial technology for the capital markets emerging. This will be defined by an on-demand and machine intelligent technology paradigm delivered as a service for infrastructure, platform, cloud, data, and analytics,” said Bryne in the same press release.

The deal was well received by some of Pico’s minority investors who have seen the company grow rapidly during the past decade. Take Ashwin Gupta, MD, Principal Strategic Investments, Goldman Sachs as one example. The executive said the acquisition of Corvil speeds up Pico’s strategy to integrate analytics-as-as-service into its offerings and positions it for growth over the long haul. Meanwhile Jason Sippel, Global Head of Equities, J.P. Morgan said the bank has invested in Pico because of its vision. “The strategic rationale for a combination with Corvil’s undisputed leadership in analytics services is persuasive, and we expect it will provide the combined entity with a profound advantage in serving its customers. We look forward to continuing to work closely with Pico, both as an investor and strategic partner,” Sippel said.