Pico

Pico to Acquire Corvil Analytics for Undisclosed Sum

Pico , a leading provider of technology services, has signed a deal to acquire Corvil, a real-time analytics and machine intelligence provider, in order to bring together a complementary fit of talent and technical capabilities and better provide a competitive advantage for customers.

The acquisition brings together two best-in-class service and product companies with a combined client base of over 400 leading banks, exchanges, asset managers, financial technology vendors and trading firms operating across five continents. The deal is expected to close within 30 days, subject to customary closing conditions.

The new firm will have a workforce of over 375 specialists in low-latency technologies, automation, machine learning and data science, as well as high-performance financial infrastructure. The company will operate under the Pico brand, while the Corvil name will continue to be used for its portfolio of products and services.

Jarrod Yuster, Founder and CEO of Pico, said: “With Pico as a premiere technology service provider to the capital markets, our clients have benefited from access to a wide range of top trading technologies within the Pico environment. 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. Our motivation for acquiring Corvil is based on a commitment to our clients to deliver the industry’s best-in-class analytics and real-time insights. 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. I am thrilled to welcome the Corvil team to Pico.”

Donal Bryne
Donal Bryne

Donal Byrne, Chief Executive Officer of Corvil, commented: “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. In the fast-paced global financial markets, you need to make your move on the markets before the markets move on you. With Pico, we are making a transformational move on the $50 billion financial technology services market.” In the combined company, Byrne will take up the position of Chief Technology Officer (CTO), reporting to Yuster, with global responsibility for product, marketing and data science.

Corvil-as-a-Service solutions will be available within Pico’s global network and infrastructure footprint and will harness Pico’s in-house expertise to deploy,  configure, and operate Corvil environments.

Pico is held by a consortium of investors holding a minority ownership position, including top named within the financial services industry such as Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, UBS and Wells Fargo.

Ashwin Gupta, MD, Principal Strategic Investments at Goldman Sachs, commented: “As an investor in Pico since inception, we have been fortunate to witness their tremendous growth over the past 10 years to become a leading provider of global infrastructure services, connectivity, cloud technology and data services for capital markets. The acquisition of Corvil accelerates Pico’s strategy to integrate advanced analytics-as-a-service into their global platform and positions the combined company for continued long-term growth.”

Jason Sippel, Global Head of Equities, J.P. Morgan, added: “We recognized the promise in Pico’s best-in-class infrastructure services early on, and have invested multiple times over the years. 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.”

UBS, both an investor in Pico and a client, commented on the deal through Todd Lopez, Head of Americas Cash Equities: “As capital markets businesses continue to search for new ways to leverage financial technology in a more cost-effective and rapid response manner, Pico is addressing these needs with solutions that resonate with a range of market participants.”

In June 2019 , Pico announced it had deployed network performance monitoring and analytics via Corvil Analytics to provide industry-leading transparency and
operational metrics. The firm’s global connectivity network gives Tier 1 banks, broker-dealers, assets managers, hedge funds, proprietary, and electronic trading firms the ability to pass data between major financial centers and execute trades in microseconds to gain a competitive edge in FX and all other asset classes as the platform extends across 35 data centers covering over 200 exchanges and trading venues worldwide.

Also last month , Corvil announced it will provide visibility across Seed CX’s multiple client access options (including colocated cross-connects, VPN access, and web-based access through AWS infrastructure) and proprietary binary protocol. Seed CX is a leading digital asset exchange.