Evolve explores the impact of this year’s banking crisis on insurance and capital markets M&A, highlighting challenges, opportunities, and the resilience of founder-owned businesses in the ever-evolving financial landscape.
Evolve explores the continued rise of independent boutique M&A advisory firms and their continued success in today’s market, as they continue to grab market share from large players.
Evolve has prepared a detailed overview for 2023 of how market conditions will precipitate a trend towards value stocks; privately held, founder-owner firms in the insurance, capital markets, and lending verticals that provide mission-critical services are well positioned to receive M&A and strategic investor interest well into 2023.
Evolve is excited to release our “Q4:2022 Insurance Claims Transaction Market Update,” which elaborates our perspectives on valuation trends and market activity in 2022 amid the volatile and uncertain macroeconomic environment. This report focuses on specialized P&C claims management and adjusting services with a deeper dive on catastrophe, where Evolve continues to be active.
Current financial reporting is rife with stories of economic volatility and ‘the sky is falling’ predictions. However, much of the analysis being presented is superficial, exaggerated or misguided. The truth can be difficult to decipher, especially if you are considering a high impact M&A or a capital raise transaction.
Evolve Capital has taken a deep dive into the quantitative and qualitative indicators actually present in today’s markets. And our findings point to an economy that is well within normal inflationary measures and is showing clear signs of recovery from the past two years of pandemic upheaval.
Put simply, everything is going to be okay. We expect to see deal volumes and deal diligence return to normal levels following the pandemic-induced spike in 2021 and the first half of 2022.
Evolve Capital is excited to release our “Capital Markets Landscape: Industry Deep Dive,” a 50-page almanac diving into trends cutting across the capital intensive & advisory, service providers and software / data solution providers in the space. The pandemic was key in bringing large numbers of retail investors into the space, with many learning how to trade stocks through tools that are easily accessible at home. In addition, the pandemic highlighted the need for continued digital transformation, as firms continued to raise capital and acquire firms that can supercharge their growth in this digital age. We constantly receive inquiries from our clients and key accounts on how they would fit into the capital markets landscape or where the capital is flowing. Hence, our “Capital Markets Landscape: Industry Deep Dive.”
The Evolve team recently returned from InsurTech Connect (ITC), the world’s largest insurtech conference in Las Vegas last week. After a two-year break hiatus because of COVID, we noted the increased attention to digitization of traditional players, and it was a common theme across many conversations. The research note was penned before we departed to ITC, but our conversations with conference attendees further supports our thesis. Enjoy our note on M&A and partnerships driving digitization.
Today’s competitive deal sourcing market requires an efficient and effective approach to manage inquiries from investors and bankers. Evolve’s approach, sharpened over a decade of refinement, has served us and our partners well, leading to successful deals and partnerships. We highlight key points from our approach that will be useful as you leverage inbound leads to your advantage, which will help you to generate new business, gain insight into competitors and help prepare for your company’s sale or recapitalization.
Evolve Capital is excited to release our “Insurance Landscape Industry Deep Dive,” a 73-page almanac diving into trends cutting across the insurance distribution, carrier, service, and software firms in the space. Over the last several years, the sector has undergone evolution as incumbents race to digitalize, new entrants finally rapidly scale, and capital availability has ignited innovation. We constantly receive inquiries from our clients and key accounts on how they would fit into the insurance landscape or where the capital is flowing. Hence, our “Insurance Landscape Industry Deep Dive.”
When a company is negotiating a sale or capital raise, one of the important questions that surface is whether it makes sense to put an employee equity plan in place (“The Equity Question”). This is especially pertinent for entrepreneurs that desire to attract and retain talent to grow their business. For those considering an M&A or financing deal, an equity plan is an effective signal to buyers and investors that they are focused on long-term business growth and will help to optimize the company’s valuation.
While the market presents an opportune time for M&A transactions and growth equity deals, companies will need to consider whether their financials are in a good position to make the most of the opportunity. Companies with strong or stable revenues are in a favorable position to execute a deal, especially if annual revenue is up from 2019. However, companies will also need to consider several factors, especially potential industry-specific headwinds in the coming year. In this research note, we suggest perspectives for companies to think about when considering deals.
As we close out 2020, it became apparent that companies expanding remote-work arrangements performed strongly in the stock markets, such as communication platforms Zoom and Twilio. These cloud-based SaaS platforms generate recurring revenue, which adds business resiliency amid the global pandemic. SaaS solutions can also be offered as part of a cloud ecosystem, making it more efficient for companies to manage data, perform analytics, and drive automation for business processes.
As companies enter the growth stage of the startup cycle, founders must start to consider a new aspect of business: M&A deals. These deals could take the form of a strategic company acquisition to expand product offerings or gain market share (buy-side), or getting acquired by a larger company (sell-side). Although there are differences between financing and M&A processes, founders may want to consider building up fundraising experiences to better prepare for future acquisitions, be it from a VC or PE fund. This will help founders understand how to engage and negotiate with buyers to generate long-term benefits for the company, while tapping into the expertise, networks, and capital of existing financial backers to maximize deal outcome.
With over $50 billion raised by SPACs so far this year, companies that plan to go public have a new option they can take. A significant share of the proceeds will likely go towards tech/FinTech companies. Despite growing concerns that SPACs may be a fad, this phenomenon can be favorable to all the relevant stakeholders including SPAC founders, target company and retail investors. In the short-term, more SPACs will emerge to take advantage of the trend, with some turning out to be bad apples. However, over the long-term we can expect SPACs to undergo natural selection, as visionary SPAC founders with less egregious allocations are preferred and thus can raise larger SPAC deals eventually.
As tech stocks continue to outperform and maintain high P/E ratios, there has been growing concerns about whether this is sustainable. With the upcoming election, the markets may become more volatile leading up to the event. We should also note that there are several supporting mechanisms that will likely prove favorable for the markets, such as record levels of private equity dry powder that may bid up the valuations of fundamentally strong companies. While the tech market shows positive signs of holding up, tech-enabled consumer-facing businesses may not benefit as much as mission-critical enterprise SaaS firms. The former tends to have heavy operational and marketing costs, while the latter is able to generate higher, recurring revenues, leading to a bifurcation in the tech markets.
As the economy struggles to recover, a number of tech startups have found themselves in potentially a challenging situation. Founders who are trying to exit and cash out may want to consider selling their company to private equity firms. With a lot of uninvested capital at their fingertips, PE firms have been hunting for ideal companies that fit into a ‘buy-and-build’ strategy. Should a tech startup have solutions that complement well with a PE firm’s existing portfolio company, it could be acquired as part of a larger entity to generate greater value. In this article, we explain more about the strategy and how startup founders can potentially end up with a substantial payout by considering this approach.
This type of growth strategy in private equity land has been gaining acceptance and steam over the last decade. The platforms backed by the private equity funds often pay a “strategic” value, while moving at the speed of private equity. This is extremely attractive to sellers seeking a fair valuation in a reasonable timeframe. Based on our real-time transaction experience, private equity funds are even more hungry for add-ons, even in today’s pandemic environment. Entrepreneurs and executives who are considering a sale transaction, should strongly consider the advantages of selling to a private equity backed platform.
Over the past decade, companies like Apple and Microsoft have consistently been amongst the most valuable companies globally. The ascendance of these Big Tech companies has sparked concerns of whether some have become “too big to fail,” as were Wall Street banks during the 2008 Financial Crisis. Meanwhile, the SaaS revolution brought software onto the cloud, powered mainly by Big Tech. In particular, Amazon’s AWS has a commanding lead as a cloud service provider. We explore the cloud economy’s growing dependency on AWS, while at the company level, the use of AWS is often used as part of a multicloud strategy. However, this strategy does not necessarily lead to enhanced cloud resiliency. Outages will continue to result in steep financial losses unless there is a stronger focus on storing the same data across multiple servers ie. cloud redundancy.
With mounting concerns of a Covid-19 “second wave,” SaaS companies like SalesForce, Shopify and Workday are poised to benefit as companies extend their work-from-home policies. These SaaS / mission-critical software service firms provide cloud-based solutions for employees to operate efficiently in the safety of their homes. Google has already allowed most employees to work remotely through the rest of the year, with Twitter and Facebook choosing to do so permanently. As the rest of the economy transitions to digital workplaces, business processes will be adapted to SaaS platforms and will be increasingly integrated, streamlined and automated. The long-term subscription revenue of these SaaS companies is expected to keep pushing up their valuations this year.
In March, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was initiated to provide loans to small businesses, as part of the comprehensive coronavirus stimulus bill (CARES Act). Through this program, $660 billion was authorized to support business owners keep up their payroll and other operating expenses. However, the scale of the program and lack of borrower scrutiny has attracted numerous fraudsters, including a NYC resident who was charged with a $20 million PPP and SBA loan fraud. In this report, we highlight fraud strategies such as “loan stacking” and the use of FinTech to address these problems.
Investment banks that conduct complicated M&A and capital raise transactions are notoriously resistant to deploying technology in their operations. This attitude affects larger investment banks down to the one-man firms advising on transactions, since the transactions are high-impact and there is not any room for error (i.e. highly risk adverse). Migrating these organizations to a 21st century technology stack will result in bankers to dispensing strong advice. Alex Koles, CEO of Evolve Capital, spoke with Federico Baradello, the CEO of Finalis , a VC-backed software driven firm enabling investment banks to operate, in the cloud, all aspects of a transaction.
Insurance is a traditionally staid business that has operated the same way for years. As I walked around the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) Conference this year, the conversations were different because the insurance industry is aware the status quo is about to change. There’s a big gap between the established insurance business practices and the new InsurTech world.
Insurance is a traditionally staid business that has operated the same way for years. As I walked around the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) Conference this year, the conversations were different because the insurance industry is aware the status quo is about to change. There’s a big gap between the established insurance business practices and the new InsurTech world.
Evolve Capital Partners recently hosted a lively evening of conversation and networking where attendees enjoyed a choice of fine whiskeys, waters and wines along with delicious food. Over 50 companies across the wealth and insurance sectors, many with an aptitude in technology, joined attendees from the broader FinTech sector.
The hosts of the popular FutureTech podcast invited Alex Koles to share the story of Evolve Capital Partners and how they provide companies in the fintech space with unrivaled connections and expert knowledge. Joining him were Young Cho, CFO and Gennadiy Gurevich, CIO of AltLending, a leading-edge company in New York that provides asset-backed loans against cryptocurrencies.
We hosted our “Frosty February” FinTech Breakfast on a chilly morning in New York City’s Midtown Manhattan. With over 25 executives and investors from the broader InsurTech and FinTech sectors, the successful event drew in professionals from both large and emerging growth firms across the insurance services and technology spaces, including PartnerRe and The Guarantors. […]
As the U.S. and global economies continue to expand and recover from the Great Recession of 2007-2009, the consumer, a key driver of the U.S. economy, is spending again and tapping into different types of credit. The rapid growth of online lenders, expansion of digitally enabled lending technologies (e.g. point of sale solutions at the home or online), and growth in lending to subprime borrowers are all catalysts for the rise in demand.
The recent data breach at Equifax, which is believed to have impacted over 143 million U.S. consumers, set off a firestorm of discussion about how to keep credit reporting data secure. There is no simple or one-size-fits-all solution because regulatory standards and data management vary greatly throughout the world.
Rapid changes are occurring in the wealth management space and the level of disruption in how advice and capital are managed is only beginning. Wealth management is a monumental industry. The players in the space run the gamut from gigantic hedge funds to individuals who manage their own investments. This changing wealth management landscape is driving a significant uptick in transactions.