Clearwater Analytics to Acquire Beacon and Blackstone’s Bistro to Deliver Investment Intelligence Across Private Markets
Clearwater Analytics (NYSE: CWAN) has announced two strategic acquisitions to transform investment management technology. The company will acquire Beacon, a leader in risk analytics for derivatives and alternative assets, for approximately $560 million, and Bistro, Blackstone's portfolio visualization platform, for $125 million.
The acquisitions aim to create a unified, front-to-back platform that provides real-time portfolio visibility across public and private securities. Beacon's platform, with Annual Recurring Revenue of approximately $44 million expected by end of 2024, serves major financial institutions including PIMCO and Blackstone. The Bistro platform, developed by Blackstone for its Credit & Insurance business, offers comprehensive private credit portfolio analytics.
The combined platform will integrate Clearwater's data and accounting capabilities with Beacon's risk modeling, Bistro's alternative asset intelligence, and Enfusion's front-office functionalities. This integration will create a single source of truth for investment execution, accounting, risk management, and analytics across all asset classes, processing over $8.8 trillion daily.
Clearwater Analytics (NYSE: CWAN) ha annunciato due acquisizioni strategiche per trasformare la tecnologia di gestione degli investimenti. L'azienda acquisirà Beacon, un leader nell'analisi del rischio per derivati e asset alternativi, per circa 560 milioni di dollari, e Bistro, la piattaforma di visualizzazione del portafoglio di Blackstone, per 125 milioni di dollari.
Le acquisizioni mirano a creare una piattaforma unificata, end-to-end, che fornisca visibilità in tempo reale del portafoglio attraverso titoli pubblici e privati. La piattaforma di Beacon, con un fatturato ricorrente annuale di circa 44 milioni di dollari previsto entro la fine del 2024, serve importanti istituzioni finanziarie tra cui PIMCO e Blackstone. La piattaforma Bistro, sviluppata da Blackstone per il suo business di Credito e Assicurazioni, offre analisi complete del portafoglio di credito privato.
La piattaforma combinata integrerà le capacità di dati e contabilità di Clearwater con il modello di rischio di Beacon, l'intelligenza sugli asset alternativi di Bistro e le funzionalità di front-office di Enfusion. Questa integrazione creerà un'unica fonte di verità per l'esecuzione degli investimenti, la contabilità, la gestione del rischio e l'analisi attraverso tutte le classi di attivi, elaborando oltre 8,8 trilioni di dollari al giorno.
Clearwater Analytics (NYSE: CWAN) ha anunciado dos adquisiciones estratégicas para transformar la tecnología de gestión de inversiones. La empresa adquirirá Beacon, un líder en análisis de riesgo para derivados y activos alternativos, por aproximadamente 560 millones de dólares, y Bistro, la plataforma de visualización de portafolios de Blackstone, por 125 millones de dólares.
Las adquisiciones tienen como objetivo crear una plataforma unificada, de extremo a extremo, que proporcione visibilidad en tiempo real del portafolio a través de valores públicos y privados. La plataforma de Beacon, con ingresos recurrentes anuales de aproximadamente 44 millones de dólares esperados para finales de 2024, sirve a importantes instituciones financieras, incluyendo PIMCO y Blackstone. La plataforma Bistro, desarrollada por Blackstone para su negocio de Crédito y Seguros, ofrece análisis completos de portafolios de crédito privado.
La plataforma combinada integrará las capacidades de datos y contabilidad de Clearwater con el modelado de riesgo de Beacon, la inteligencia de activos alternativos de Bistro y las funcionalidades de front-office de Enfusion. Esta integración creará una única fuente de verdad para la ejecución de inversiones, la contabilidad, la gestión de riesgos y el análisis a través de todas las clases de activos, procesando más de 8,8 billones de dólares diariamente.
클리어워터 애널리틱스 (NYSE: CWAN)는 투자 관리 기술을 혁신하기 위한 두 가지 전략적 인수를 발표했습니다. 이 회사는 파생상품 및 대체 자산에 대한 위험 분석의 선두주자인 비콘을 약 5억 6천만 달러에 인수하고, 블랙스톤의 포트폴리오 시각화 플랫폼인 비스트로를 1억 2천5백만 달러에 인수할 예정입니다.
이번 인수의 목적은 공공 및 민간 증권 전반에 걸쳐 실시간 포트폴리오 가시성을 제공하는 통합된 프론트-투-백 플랫폼을 만드는 것입니다. 비콘의 플랫폼은 2024년 말까지 약 4천4백만 달러의 연간 반복 수익을 예상하며, PIMCO와 블랙스톤을 포함한 주요 금융 기관에 서비스를 제공합니다. 블랙스톤이 신용 및 보험 사업을 위해 개발한 비스트로 플랫폼은 포괄적인 사모 신용 포트폴리오 분석을 제공합니다.
결합된 플랫폼은 클리어워터의 데이터 및 회계 기능과 비콘의 위험 모델링, 비스트로의 대체 자산 정보, 엔퓨전의 프론트 오피스 기능을 통합합니다. 이 통합은 모든 자산 클래스에 걸쳐 투자 실행, 회계, 위험 관리 및 분석을 위한 단일 진실의 출처를 생성하며, 매일 8.8조 달러 이상을 처리합니다.
Clearwater Analytics (NYSE: CWAN) a annoncé deux acquisitions stratégiques pour transformer la technologie de gestion des investissements. L'entreprise va acquérir Beacon, un leader dans l'analyse des risques pour les dérivés et les actifs alternatifs, pour environ 560 millions de dollars, et Bistro, la plateforme de visualisation de portefeuille de Blackstone, pour 125 millions de dollars.
Les acquisitions visent à créer une plateforme unifiée, de bout en bout, qui offre une visibilité en temps réel des portefeuilles à travers des titres publics et privés. La plateforme de Beacon, avec un revenu récurrent annuel d'environ 44 millions de dollars prévu d'ici fin 2024, sert de grandes institutions financières, y compris PIMCO et Blackstone. La plateforme Bistro, développée par Blackstone pour son activité de Crédit et d'Assurance, propose des analyses complètes des portefeuilles de crédit privé.
La plateforme combinée intégrera les capacités de données et de comptabilité de Clearwater avec la modélisation des risques de Beacon, l'intelligence des actifs alternatifs de Bistro et les fonctionnalités de front-office d'Enfusion. Cette intégration créera une unique source de vérité pour l'exécution des investissements, la comptabilité, la gestion des risques et l'analyse à travers toutes les classes d'actifs, traitant plus de 8,8 billions de dollars quotidiennement.
Clearwater Analytics (NYSE: CWAN) hat zwei strategische Übernahmen angekündigt, um die Technologie im Investmentmanagement zu transformieren. Das Unternehmen wird Beacon, einen führenden Anbieter von Risikoanalysen für Derivate und alternative Anlagen, für etwa 560 Millionen Dollar übernehmen, sowie Bistro, die Portfolio-Visualisierungsplattform von Blackstone, für 125 Millionen Dollar.
Die Übernahmen zielen darauf ab, eine einheitliche End-to-End-Plattform zu schaffen, die eine Echtzeit-Portfolioansicht über öffentliche und private Wertpapiere bietet. Die Plattform von Beacon, die bis Ende 2024 voraussichtlich einen jährlichen wiederkehrenden Umsatz von etwa 44 Millionen Dollar erzielen wird, bedient große Finanzinstitute wie PIMCO und Blackstone. Die Bistro-Plattform, die von Blackstone für ihr Kredit- und Versicherungsgeschäft entwickelt wurde, bietet umfassende Analysen von privaten Kreditportfolios.
Die kombinierte Plattform wird die Daten- und Buchhaltungsfähigkeiten von Clearwater mit dem Risikomodell von Beacon, der alternativen Vermögensintelligenz von Bistro und den Front-Office-Funktionen von Enfusion integrieren. Diese Integration wird eine einzige Quelle der Wahrheit für die Investitionsausführung, Buchhaltung, Risikomanagement und Analytik über alle Anlageklassen hinweg schaffen und täglich über 8,8 Billionen Dollar verarbeiten.
- Strategic acquisitions expand CWAN's capabilities into private markets and alternative assets
- Beacon brings $44M in expected ARR by end of 2024
- Integration creates comprehensive front-to-back platform processing $8.8T daily
- Partnership with major financial institutions (PIMCO, Blackstone) strengthens market position
- Unified platform eliminates operational inefficiencies and manual processes
- Significant cash outlay required for acquisitions
- Will utilize portion of $200M revolving credit line
- Integration complexity may require 1-2 years of intense focus
- Substantial share dilution from stock-based portion of acquisitions
Insights
Clearwater Analytics' dual acquisition strategy represents a transformative bet on the future of investment management technology. The company is making a $685 million investment - $560 million for Beacon and $125 million for Blackstone's Bistro platform - to create an integrated front-to-back platform spanning both public and private markets.
The acquisition of Beacon at approximately 12.7x ARR (based on Beacon's $44 million in annual recurring revenue) represents a premium but justifiable valuation for a specialized platform with deep integrations at sophisticated clients like PIMCO and Blackstone. The transaction structure - 60% cash and 40% stock for Beacon, while Bistro is primarily stock-based - helps preserve capital while giving the acquired entities a stake in future success.
What's particularly compelling is how these acquisitions address a critical industry pain point: institutional investors increasingly allocating to alternatives (now ~20% of portfolios) while struggling with fragmented technology stacks. By creating a unified data architecture with a single security master across front, middle, and back-office functions, Clearwater is positioning itself as the comprehensive solution to this fragmentation problem.
The deal funding through Term Loan B proceeds, cash, and revolving credit will increase Clearwater's leverage but appears manageable given the strategic value. The ongoing partnerships with industry heavyweights PIMCO and Blackstone add significant validation. Execution will be critical, as integrating these platforms over the next 1-2 years presents substantial technical challenges, but the potential value creation through a unified investment management platform spanning public and private markets represents a significant opportunity to capture market share in a growing segment.
These acquisitions represent a paradigm shift in Clearwater's market positioning. By acquiring Beacon's cross-asset modeling capabilities and Blackstone's Bistro platform, Clearwater is executing a comprehensive platform strategy that addresses the fundamental architectural challenges in investment technology.
The technical architecture described is particularly compelling - creating a single security master and unified data plane that spans $8.8 trillion in daily processing across all asset classes. This approach eliminates the data reconciliation nightmare that plagues institutional investors, especially those with significant alternative allocations.
What makes this technology strategy superior to competitors is the combination of both horizontal integration (front-to-back office) and vertical integration (across public and private assets). Most legacy systems excel at one or the other, but not both. The incorporation of Beacon's sophisticated risk modeling for alternatives alongside Clearwater's existing accounting platform creates a uniquely comprehensive solution.
Perhaps most interesting is the platform extensibility - Clearwater is building an architecture that enables third-party model marketplaces and regulatory enhancement plugins. This creates network effects and potential additional revenue streams beyond the core platform.
The integration challenges shouldn't be understated - bringing together Clearwater, Beacon, Bistro and the previously announced Enfusion acquisition will require meticulous execution across multiple technology stacks. However, the fact that Beacon and Clearwater are already integrated at several clients provides evidence that the technical foundations exist.
If successfully executed, this platform could substantially increase switching costs for clients and position Clearwater as the technological backbone for institutional investment management across both public and private markets - a massive addressable market with substantial growth potential.
Building the Future of Investment Management with a Fully Integrated, Front-to-Back Platform That Unifies Data, Analytics and Execution Across Public and Private Securities
PIMCO, a Longtime Strategic Partner and Investor in Beacon, Will Continue to be a Partner in Developing the Next-Generation Platform
Clearwater has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Beacon, a next-generation leader for cross-asset class modeling and risk analytics for derivatives, private credit and debt, structured products and other alternative assets. Integrated with Wilshire’s equities and fixed income risk capabilities, this powerful engine enables portfolio modeling and risk management, addressing the growing focus on private and alternative assets. With institutional investors now allocating nearly
Clearwater also announced a definitive asset purchase agreement to acquire Bistro, Blackstone’s proprietary portfolio visualization software platform built for Blackstone’s Credit & Insurance business. As the world’s largest alternative asset manager, Blackstone developed Bistro to support the growth of its insurance clients and provide a comprehensive view of private credit portfolios, including asset analytics, client reporting, and risk management insights. Two key foundational pillars of the Bistro platform are Clearwater and Beacon, and tight integration with these platforms has been—and continues to be—a core architectural construct.
“With this combination, Chief Investment and Chief Risk Officers will have a unified, real-time view of their entire portfolio—from public equities and private credit to structured products and alternatives—all in a single, cloud-native platform. The Clearwater platform will allow them to drill down and comprehensively understand their exposure to a company, industry or geography across all their investments, public and private. That will, in turn, allow them to model their entire portfolio, evaluate cash flows and understand risk. Add to that the industry-leading pre-trade capabilities of the Enfusion platform, and the industry will have a true front-to-back platform, enhancing their ability to make better investment decisions,” said Sandeep Sahai, CEO at Clearwater Analytics.
“This is an incredible moment—not just for Beacon, but for the entire industry,” said Kirat Singh, CEO of Beacon. “Our platform is already integrated with Clearwater and Enfusion at many of our shared clients, delivering best-in-class risk, performance and pre-trade functionality. By bringing these platforms together, along with Blackstone’s Bistro, we’re creating something truly industry-leading—giving institutional investors complete transparency across front office, pre-trade, risk and accounting. We believe no one else can offer this level of depth, and I couldn’t be more excited for what’s ahead.”
“Technology is critical to everything we do, including how we interface with key investors who are broadening their exposure to private credit assets. We built the Bistro platform to address a need we saw in the market both for ourselves and our clients to have a more advanced credit portfolio insights platform. Clearwater has an exciting opportunity to continue evolving this core infrastructure platform for the credit asset management industry and we look forward to helping them build something that creates enduring value,” said John Stecher, Chief Technology Officer of Blackstone.
Michael Chae, Blackstone Vice Chairman & Chief Financial Officer, added: “The culture of innovation at Blackstone extends across how we develop both investment and operational solutions, and the value creation represented by Bistro is a reflection of that.”
“PIMCO has had a strategic partnership and minority stake in Beacon since 2018 and is highly supportive of the combination with Clearwater. Our partnership with Beacon has enabled us to accelerate the development of market-leading risk and analytics tools on behalf of our clients. We are excited to build upon this long-standing partnership with Clearwater and to explore even more opportunities which create value for our clients globally,” said John Kirkowski, Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of PIMCO.
For years, institutional investors have been forced to choose between powerful analytics and operational efficiency—relying on disparate, rigid, legacy platforms that create endless cycles of upgrades, manual reconciliations, and fragmented data spread across spreadsheets and disconnected systems. These inefficiencies slow decision-making, increase operational risk, and make it difficult to gain a unified view of portfolios.
Clearwater is eliminating these challenges with a true front-to-back, public-to-private market platform – a seamless integration of Clearwater’s industry-leading data and accounting platform with Beacon’s cross-asset risk modeling, Bistro’s alternative asset intelligence, and Enfusion’s front-office capabilities.
By breaking down data silos across the front, middle, and back-office, this platform will provide a single source of truth for investment execution, accounting, risk management, compliance, regulatory reporting, and analytics across all asset classes. For the first time, institutional investors can better see, analyze, and act across public and private markets in near real-time—without the operational bottlenecks of legacy systems.
Clearwater’s platform and architecture give us the opportunity to deliver on this promise. While seamlessly integrating these modern, cloud-native technology platforms will benefit clients immediately, our vision is much bolder.
-
We aim to create a singular data ingestion, aggregation and reconciliation engine for use across all these business functions and platforms. The Clearwater platform already has the data architecture to support that today and processes over
$8.8 trillion - Another foundational element is the pursuit of a single security master for use across these platforms. Clearwater’s current architecture uses that approach at scale and has a single security master for all its 1,450+ clients. Extending that to include the needs of these additional platforms will be transformational for the industry. Having a single security master is at the core of creating a true front to back platform and will, in our opinion, be a game changer.
The Clearwater platform will utilize a single security master and a unified data plane across all asset classes, business functions, and clients—including portfolio modeling, pre-trade compliance, trade execution, risk and performance management, accounting, post-trade compliance, and regulatory reporting.
We believe this has the power to transform portfolio transparency and dramatically enhance the speed of decision-making for investment managers. With real-time data flow, decision-making accelerates, while data-driven insights, real-time benchmarking, and scenario analysis empower investment teams to act confidently.
What This Means for Institutional Investors
For insurance companies and asset owners, these acquisitions represent a fully integrated technology stack for investment management that combines pre-trade, post-trade and risk all in one platform. It will bring all their public and private assets into a single analytics framework, obviating the need for constant upgrades, endless reconciliation and error-prone manual processing. This platform will also enable efficient asset liability matching and regulatory reporting and lower the cost of doing business.
For asset managers, this will mean eliminating inefficiencies in managing private credit, real estate debt, structured products and alternative investments. Clearwater will be the only SaaS platform capable of providing a complete, real-time understanding of exposures, cash flow dynamics and risk correlations across strategies, geographies and asset types. Client reporting that includes a comprehensive view of all their public and private assets and scenario modeling will be dramatically enhanced.
Clearwater’s vision goes beyond solving today’s challenges—its open architecture, single security master, single data plane and ability to do benchmarking provides the foundation for the creation of marketplaces, both commercial and technology. Firms will be able to offer proprietary models for use by market participants. Other firms could offer regulatory reporting enhancements for different countries and tax regimes.
Clearwater will acquire Beacon for an aggregate purchase price of approximately
The purchase price for the Bistro software is
Clearwater will use the proceeds from its previously committed
“These transactions bring the critical IP needed to build a disruptive, end-to-end platform for the investment management industry. Integrating these platforms into a single, seamless solution will require intense focus and execution over the next year or two, but I’m confident in our ability to deliver. As we complete this work, we expect our customers to be completely delighted,” added Sahai.
Conference Call and Webcast
Clearwater Analytics will host an investor conference call to discuss the transaction on March 12, 2025, at 8:30 a.m. ET. A live webcast of the call will be accessible via Clearwater’s Investor Relations website at investors.clearwateranalytics.com. A replay of the webcast will also be available on Clearwater’s Investor Relations website shortly after the call.
Advisors
Kirkland & Ellis LLP is serving as legal advisor to Clearwater in both transactions. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP is serving as legal advisor to Beacon. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP is serving as legal advisor to Blackstone. Broadhaven Capital Partners served as financial advisor to Beacon.
About Clearwater Analytics
Clearwater Analytics (NYSE: CWAN), a global, industry-leading SaaS solution, automates the entire investment lifecycle. With a single instance, multi-tenant architecture, Clearwater offers award-winning investment portfolio planning, performance reporting, data aggregation, reconciliation, accounting, compliance, risk, and order management. Each day, leading insurers, asset managers, corporations, and governments use Clearwater’s trusted data to drive efficient, scalable investing on more than
About Beacon
Beacon enables front-office, risk, and investment teams to manage risk, focus on developing strategies, and capture market opportunities using our cross-asset trading and risk management models and applications. Beacon’s unified, cloud-native platform and shared code repository give quantitative developers the flexibility to integrate with existing in-house and third-party systems and data providers to rapidly build, test, and deploy custom risk models and analytics.
About Blackstone
Blackstone is the world’s largest alternative asset manager. We seek to deliver compelling returns for institutional and individual investors by strengthening the companies in which we invest. Our more than
Use of Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs and assumptions of Clearwater’s management and on information currently available to them. Forward-looking statements include information concerning the following factors in reference to Clearwater, Enfusion, Beacon and/or Bistro (the acquisitions of Enfusion, Beacon and Bistro are referred to herein as the “Referenced Acquisitions”): the timing of the consummation of any of the Referenced Acquisitions and the ability to satisfy closing conditions, possible or assumed future results of operations, possible or assumed performance, business strategies, technology developments, financing and investment plans, competitive position, industry, economic and regulatory environment, potential growth opportunities and the effects of competition. Forward-looking statements include statements that are not historical facts and can be identified by terms such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “aim,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “seek,” “should,” “will,” “would” or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms, but are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements.
Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond Clearwater’s control, that may cause its actual results, performance, or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the ability to successfully close the Referenced Acquisitions, Clearwater’s ability to successfully integrate the operations and technology of the Referenced Acquisitions with those of Clearwater and to obtain third party data rights, retain and incentivize the employees of Enfusion and Beacon following the close of the acquisition, retain clients in the case of the acquisition of Enfusion and Beacon, repay debt to be incurred in connection with the Referenced Acquisitions and meet financial covenants to be imposed in connection with such debt, risks that cost savings, synergies and growth from the Referenced Acquisitions may not be fully realized or may take longer to realize than expected, as well as other risks and uncertainties discussed under “Risk Factors” in Clearwater’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on February 26, 2025, as well as in other periodic reports filed by Clearwater with the SEC. These filings are available at www.sec.gov and on Clearwater’s website, investors.clearwateranalytics.com. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Also, forward-looking statements represent management’s beliefs and assumptions only as of the date of this press release and should not be relied upon as representing Clearwater’s expectations or beliefs as of any date subsequent to the time they are made. Clearwater does not undertake to and specifically declines any obligation to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of Clearwater.
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Investor Contact for Clearwater Analytics
Joon Park | +1 415-906-9242 | investors@clearwateranalytics.com
Media Contact for Clearwater Analytics
Claudia Cahill | +1 703-728-1221 | press@clearwateranalytics.com
Source: Clearwater Analytics
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