We look forward to seeing you for the Caffé di BeBeez on 9 November, Monday, at 10:30 AM
in Milan at Park Hyatt Hotel.
Top tier professionals will discuss the role of proprietary data, AI and intelligence in reshaping the competitive advantage for private capital and M&A
A journey through the entire economic intelligence value chain, to discover which data, tools and AI applications are already changing the way we invest, carry out M&A and create value in portfolio companies. It will be an opportunity to see, in a single morning, how the new private equity decision-making framework is being built, piece by piece. Artificial intelligence is changing the rules of the game on two fronts: in portfolio companies, where it can accelerate growth, productivity and value creation, and within the funds themselves, where it is transforming the way investment opportunities are identified, due diligence is conducted and the portfolio is monitored. OpenAI and Anthropic are developing new enterprise AI platforms in partnership with some of the world’s leading private equity firms. The London Stock Exchange explained the business rationale behind its acquisition of Octus emphasising the idea that the competitive advantage that proprietary data provide increases in value through artificial intelligence. Where this competitive advantage really comes from? Who has the best data? Who knows how to turn it into strategic insights and operational decisions? Which applications are already delivering tangible results? We will discuss this with the builders of this new infrastructure — from proprietary data to intelligence platforms, from AI models to intelligent agents — and with the funds that are using it to invest more effectively and grow their portfolio companies. A discussion aimed at understanding not only what is changing today, but above all who will be able to create the most value tomorrow.
Click here to book your place.
Programme
10.30AM Welcome Coffee
11.00AM Round-table discussion with Stefania Peveraro, BeBeez Editor–in-Chief as moderator
1. Operational data – Where the information that matters comes from?
Antonio Torino, ceo Workgroup
2. Data intelligence – How can you spot opportunities that others miss?
Fabrizio Vigo, co-founder & ceo Sevendata
3. AI agents – When does intelligence turn into action?
Tiziano Cetarini, founder & ceo Metriks AI.
4. The investor’s role – How much might the analyst’s job change?
Francesco Paolo Calia, co-founder of Quido 5. Private Equity – AI as a driver of value creation
Francesco Casiraghi, managing director Advent International, one of the founding partners of OpenAI Deployment Company, the organisation set up by OpenAI to accelerate the adoption of AI in businesses.
If the world’s largest financial groups are spending billion to acquire companies that hold proprietary data, what do those buyers know that other investors may not yet have realised?
The race for data and intelligence platforms did not begin with ChatGPT. Artificial intelligence is accelerating this industrial trend, increasing the capacity to transform vast amounts of information into analysis, forecasts and operational decisions.
In 2019, ION Investment Group – the group that Andrea Pignataro founded– acquired from BC Partners and GIC a controlling stake in Acuris, the owner of Mergermarket, Debtwire and other financial intelligence platforms for an enterprise value of 1.35 billion GBPs (see here a previous post by BeBeez). ION is not a private equity fund but an industrial group that built a significant part of its growth by acquiring software, data and financial information tools. Acuris was a strategic component of that growth and made an important exit for BC Partners which purchased the asset in 2013.
In 2021 London Stock Exchange Group completed the acquisition of Refinitiv from Blackstone and Thomson Reuters after having announced the deal in 2019 for an initial value of 27 billion US Dollars. Such a transaction was part of LSEG’s identity reshaping from market infrastructure operator into a global data, analytics and technology group (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
In 2024, AI-based market intelligence player AlphaSense said it acquired Tegus, a provider of expert-led research, content on private companies, financial data and tools for optimising workflows, for 930 million US Dollars and secured a round of 650 million that Viking Global Investors and BDT & MSD Partners led and JP Morgan Growth Equity Partners, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Blue Owl Capital, Alkeon Capital, CapitalG (Alphabet), and Goldman Sachs Alternatives joined. After such finanching AlphaSense value hit 4 billion US Dollars (press release).
In 2024 BlackRock acquired Preqin for 3.2 billion US Dollars and closed the transaction in March 2025 ahead of an intergration with Aladdin and eFront (see here a previous post by BeBeez and press release).
In October 2025, S&P Global purchased With Intelligence, a provider of information about alternative assers, from Motive Partners and other vendors for 1.8 billion US Dollars (press release).
On 22 October, Thursday, LSEG signed a 3.535 billion US Dollars agreement for acquiring Octus (fka Reorg) from Permira and other shareholders ahead of a 1Q27 closing. Permira purchased the asset in 2022 on the ground of an enterprise value of 1.3 billion US Dollars. The company is expected to exceed US$300 million in revenue in 2026, with a 40% adjusted EBITDA margin. The agreed price is therefore just under twelve times the expected revenue (see here a previous post by BeBeez). On 28 October, Wednesday, Covalent Equity Partners poured undisclosed growth resources in UK’s AML Analytics (press release).
These very different operations share the view that reliable, up-to-date proprietary data integrated into decision-making processes is a strategic infrastructure.
If artificial intelligence can search for, read, summarise and compare vast amounts of information, why should the companies that collect that information be worth so much? The answer is probably that the ability to process information is not the same as having access to high-quality information.
An AI model can analyse hundreds of documents in a matter of seconds, but it cannot invent reliable data that do not exist, nor can it automatically replace years of collecting, verifying, standardising and updating information. Above all, it cannot transform an incomplete public source into a proprietary, structured and verified database simply because it has greater computing power.
For private markets, the problem is even more evident. Unlisted companies do not have the same disclosure obligations as listed firms. Valuations are less transparent, comparisons between assets are more difficult, and information often scatters across financial statements, corporate documents, commercial sources and direct communications.
The owner of more accurate data can ask better questions of artificial intelligence and can get more useful answers.
The information platforms that merely regurgitate readily available information risk seeing their competitive advantage eroded. Truly differentiated proprietary data, together with their reliability and integration into clients’ processes makes a potential barrier to entry.
For a private equity fund, these transactions tell two stories at once. The first concerns where to invest. Data and intelligence platforms can be very attractive businesses: recurring revenue, high customer loyalty, significant switching costs and the potential to develop new products thanks to AI. The exits of Acuris, With Intelligence and Octus demonstrate that there are strategic buyers willing to pay significant valuations for these assets.
The second story, however, is even more important. It concerns how to invest. How many funds already systematically use proprietary data to identify targets before their competitors? How many can integrate financial, industrial and operational information to better evaluate an acquisition? How many use AI to analyse due diligence documentation, monitor portfolio companies in real time or identify add-on opportunities? How many built their own information infrastructure, rather than simply purchasing a few subscriptions and experimenting with generative tools?
There is a substantial difference between occasionally using an AI application and rethinking the entire investment process around reliable data, automated analysis and integrated decision-making tools. In the first case, users can save time. In the second, they can build a competitive advantage.
Those who stand still risk of being less efficient and systematically lagging behind other competitors in identifying targets, understanding risks, assessing opportunities and creating value for their portfolio companies.
EdiBeez, the publisher of BeBeez, decided to take this route and, in May 2026, announced an agreement with Milan-listed data company Metriks AI with the aim of reshaping BeBeez Private Data – BeBeez’s proprietary database of Italian private capital – into an AI-native platform. The wealth of information built up over more than a decade of publishing activity will thus be accessible via natural language queries using intelligent agents, enabling funds, banks and advisers to identify potential targets, reconstruct transactions, analyse sectors and monitor portfolio companies (see here a previous post by BeBeez).
The business rationale is the same as that seen in major international operations: combining exclusive data, specialist expertise and artificial intelligence to move beyond simply consulting information to producing intelligence that can be used to inform investment decisions.
Caffè di BeBeez of 9 November, Monday, will take place at Milan’s Park Hyatt Hotel. The panels will share their opinions about how to build the value chain built that leads from data to decision-making.
The discussion will therefore cover deal sourcing, due diligence, company analysis, monitoring of portfolio companies and process automation. But it will also address a broader industrial issue: who will control the data and tools that enable funds to make better decisions? The discussion will be particularly useful for private equity and private debt managers, institutional investors, M&A professionals and advisers, as well as for those working day-to-day on the transformation of portfolio companies.
