Board Intelligence, a number one AI-driven agency enhancing boardroom efficiency, has bought a majority stake to Californian personal fairness home K1, valuing the London-based enterprise at as much as $300 million (£230 million).
This vital funding will see multimillion-pound payouts to founders Jennifer Sundberg, 44, and Pippa Begg, 40. The founders plan to leverage K1’s funding to drive the worldwide enlargement of the enterprise they established in 2009.
Board Intelligence boasts a shopper base of three,000, together with outstanding names like John Lewis, Nationwide Grid, and ITV. The corporate operates three major divisions: an advisory consultancy service and two IT arms. One IT division manages a safe portal for distributing board papers, whereas the opposite provides an AI device named Lucia, which assists boards in evaluating the steadiness of the stories they obtain. “In case you’re writing a report and it’s 100 per cent excellent news, that’s most likely not a balanced report,” defined Begg.
Earlier than K1’s funding, Sundberg, Begg, and their households owned 40% of the corporate, with 12% held by 120 staff, 8% by angel traders resembling boardroom veteran Sir John Egan, and 41% by personal fairness agency Susquehanna, which is now exiting. Most present shareholders are sustaining their stakes, aside from one angel investor, the property of the late Sir Mike Wilson, founding father of St James’s Place.
Whereas particular transaction phrases weren’t disclosed, Board Intelligence has seen substantial development, doubling its valuation from $100 million three years in the past. Regardless of a lack of £859,000 in 2022, as reported in its newest Firms Home filings, the corporate has since returned to profitability.
Sir John Egan, a former CEO of Jaguar and BAA, supported the corporate for its potential to streamline boardroom documentation. “I had simply began work as a non-executive chairman and was appalled on the enormous board packs — typically 200 to 300 pages lengthy — and likewise that, typically, little thought had gone into what the board assembly itself was supposed to realize,” he stated.
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AI agency secures $300m valuation in main US personal fairness deal
