Clearwater Analytics Goes (back) Private

On December 21, 2025, Clearwater Analytics (NYSE: CWAN) entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by an investor group led by Permira and Warburg Pincus, with Francisco Partners and Temasek also participating, in a transaction valued at $8.4 billion.

This isn’t a “new relationship” take-private. Permira and Warburg Pincus were part of Clearwater’s 2020 growth investment round and helped sponsor its path to the public markets in 2021. Now, they’re re-assembling the cap table to give the business more room to integrate and keep building.

Clearwater is stitching together the data + accounting system of record with the analytics + risk system of engagement, especially for alternatives, where the operational burden is heavier and the data is less standardized.

Public markets tend to punish “platform assembly” periods (integration risk, margin noise, growth mixing bowls). Private ownership often embraces them, especially when the endgame is a tightly integrated suite rather than a collection of SKU-level wins.

This looks less like a cost-cutting LBO and more like a “take it off the quarterly treadmill, finish the platform build, then re-emerge” type of transaction.

Read on for history, strategic rationale, the competitive landscape, investors involved, and more.

NOTE: The merger agreement provides for a “go-shop” period ending on January 23, 2026, during which CWAN, at the direction of the Special Committee and with the assistance of its advisors, will be permitted to actively solicit and evaluate alternative acquisition proposals, with a potential 10-day extension for certain parties that submit acquisition proposals during the initial go-shop period. Will this be our industry’s mini version of the WBD + Paramount + Netflix craziness?

Clearwater’s History

Clearwater Analytics is a cloud-native investment accounting, reconciliation, reporting, and analytics platform that serves as the system of record for institutional investment portfolios. If an institution needs to prove what it owns, what it earned, what it’s worth, and whether it complies with rules, Clearwater is the software behind that proof.

The company was founded in 2004 in Boise, Idaho by David Boren, Michael Boren, and Douglas Bates, coming out of the pain they experienced running institutional fixed income portfolios and dealing with fragmented custodians and downstream reporting. The trio had previously founded Clearwater Advisors, an institutional fixed income investment advisor, and worked together at Sawtooth Investment Management.

In 2011, growth equity firm, Summit Partners, made a minority investment in Clearwater.

In 2016, technology and healthcare focused private equity firm, Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS), acquired a majority stake in Clearwater.

Sandeep Sahai joined as Executive Chairman in 2016 and stepped into the CEO role in 2018. Under his tenure, Clearwater went from a strong niche platform to a consolidator, via a recent fast sequence of acquisitions aimed at broadening from accounting into a fuller investment “operating system.”

In 2020, Clearwater received a new investment led by Permira, Warburg Pincus, Dragoneer, and Durable Capital, with WCAS remaining the company’s majority shareholder.

Less than one year later, in September 2021, Clearwater went public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), raising $540M at $18 per share, with shares jumping over 30% during the debut to value the company at ~$5.5B.

The company operates from 23 offices in 12 countries. Recent executive hires and promotions include:

• Shane Akeroyd joined January 2024 as Chief Strategy Officer. Previously President of Digital Asset and EVP, President APAC and Global Head of Account Management at IHS Markit,

• Keith Viverito joined February 2024 as Managing Director, EMEA. Previously served as Head of Business Development, EMEA for BlackRock Aladdin, and in Head of Sales roles at Markit, FactSet, and Thomson Reuters.

• Fleur Sohtz joined August 2024 as CMO. Previously CMO at Xceptor, Analytic Partners, Team8, and Collibra.

• Pedro Piccoli joined March 2025 as Chief of Staff to the CEO and Head of Corporate Strategy. Previously served as Senior Director, GTM Strategy & Operations at UiPath and strategy and operations roles at Google.

• Subi Sethi was promoted to COO in April 2025. Previously served as Chief Client Officer, having joined the company in January 2020.

The Buying Spree: Clearwater’s Platform-Assembly Era

In the last few years, Clearwater moved aggressively to bolt on companies that broaden its capabilities:

September 2024 - Acquired JUMP Technology, a European investment management software company providing modular front-to-back office solutions, for €75M. JUMP was founded in 2006 by Emmanuel Fougeras, who is currently Managing Director at Clearwater.

April 2024 - Acquired risk and performance analytics solutions from Wilshire, including Wilshire Axiom (fixed income analytics), Wilshire Atlas (equity analytics and performance measurement), Wilshire Abacus (accounting), and Wilshire iQComposite (GIPS compliance support analytics). The purchase price was ~$40M.

January 2025 - Acquired Enfusion in a take-private deal worth $1.5B. Enfusion is an investment management SaaS platform uniting front-, middle- and back-office teams on one system through software, analytics, and managed services. Prior to going public in October 2021, Enfusion had received growth investments from ICONIQ Growth and FTV Capital. At the time of acquisition, Enfusion was led by Oleg Movchan.

March 2025 - Acquired Bistro, Blackstone’s proprietary portfolio visualization software platform built for Blackstone’s Credit & Insurance business, for $125M. 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.

At the same time, the company announced the acquisition of Beacon, a development platform for financial institutions that provides cross-asset risk modeling, for $560M. Beacon was founded in 2014 by Kirat Singh and Mark Higgins, the former who is currently President, Risk & Alternatives at Clearwater. Important to note that in 2021, Beacon raised a $56M Series C round. The lead… Warburg Pincus.

Truth-First Platforms: Why the Next Wave of Investment Tech Is Built Backwards

For two decades, most investment technology was built workflow-first. Start with a screen → add speed → add alerts → add insights. Only later (often much later) did anyone worry about whether the underlying data was actually correct. That ordering worked in a world dominated by liquid markets, daily prices, and forgiving tolerance for approximation. It breaks down completely in the world institutional investors now inhabit.

Workflow-first won by being fast, not right. Platforms succeeded because they optimized for decision velocity. Faster access to market data, faster screening and analytics, and faster consensus and narrative formation. They answered questions like:

• What’s happening?

• What does the market think?

• What should I look at next?

Accuracy mattered, but directionally, not forensically. That was fine, until portfolios changed. Alternatives broke the abstraction. Private credit. Private equity. Infrastructure. Real assets. Complex insurance portfolios. These assets don’t behave like equities:

• Valuations are model-driven

• Cash flows are irregular

• Data lives in PDFs, side letters, and capital notices

• Reporting is legal, regulatory, and contractual, not just informational

In this world, approximate truth is not truth. You can’t say “We’re directionally right.” You have to say “This reconciles. This ties. This survives audit.” That’s where workflow-first systems start to crack. Truth-first platforms reverse the historical order. They:

• Establish authoritative data

• Prove lineage and reconciliation

• Then layer analytics and workflows

This is slower, less glamorous, and much harder to sell in quarterly cycles. But once established, it’s almost impossible to displace. That’s the category Clearwater Analytics is consolidating.

The uncomfortable implication for incumbents - if truth-first platforms win, then market data becomes an input, not the product. Analytics become a view, not the authority. Workflow becomes downstream of accounting, not upstream. That subtly but fundamentally changes power. It means you can change your analytics provider, you can change your front-end, but you do not change your system of record. Once truth is centralized, everything else negotiates.

Betting on the Data & Info Services Playbook - Why These Buyers

Founded in 1966, Warburg Pincus has a long history of backing financial services infrastructure and data businesses, with a playbook that focuses on:

• Institutional trust layers (pricing, accounting, reconciled truth)

• High-urgency, premium intelligence that embeds into workflows

• Risk/analytics infrastructure that sits just above truth

• Boring-but-sticky ops plumbing

Two especially relevant examples include:

In 2010, along with Silver Lake, Warburg completed the take-private acquisition of Interactive Data Corporation (IDC), a provider of financial market data, analytics, and trading solutions, in a deal valued at $3.4B. In 2015, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) acquired IDC for $5.2B. Warburg executed a multi-year tech investment and re-platforming of pricing and reference data infrastructure, exactly the kind of “critical plumbing” work that maps to Clearwater’s world.

In 2018, Warburg acquired a majority stake in Reorg (now Octus), a provider of data, analytics, and intelligence for the credit markets, in a deal valued at ~$400M. In 2022, Permira acquired the majority stake at a ~$1.3B valuation, and it was reported in October 2025 that Permira is readying a sale of the business for $4B.

In 2021, Warburg led the $153M Series D round for Quantexa, a data and analytics software company pioneering Contextual Decision Intelligence. Quantexa’s platform uncovers hidden risk and new opportunities by providing a contextual, connected view of internal and external data in a single place.

Founded in 1985 as part of Schroders and independent since 1996, U.K. based Permira is also no stranger to financial services, information, and data deals. Across several investments, repeat patterns emerge that help explain the Clearwater focus:

• Invest in critical data infrastructure

• Transform traditional software into cloud/recurring analytics platforms

• Build analytics and AI capabilities as strategic differentiators

• Expand through bolt-ons and service enrichments

• Back high-trust, mission-critical domains

From email security to customer experience to investment accounting, Permira tilts toward platforms where data accuracy and delivery reliability are essential.

In 2015, along with CPPIB, Permira acquired Informatica for $5.3B. In 2021, Informatica went public at a ~$8B valuation, with Permira retaining a significant stake. In 2025, Informatica was acquired by Salesforce, with the remaining Permira and CPPIB stakes valued at $4.7B. During Permira’s ownership, the value creation path included moving the product to the cloud and shifting the revenue model - the modern enterprise data infrastructure playbook.

In 2023, Permira acquired Acuity Analytics (formerly Acuity Knowledge Partners), a provider of research, analytics, AI, data, and digital services to financial services clients. In 2025, Acuity acquired Ascent, a provider of AI-powered digital transformation services.

In 2017, Permira acquired Alter Domus, a provider of fund administration and services to the alternative investment industry. In 2024, Permira sold half of their shares to Cinven at a €4.9B valuation.

Founded in 1999, Francisco Partners is a private equity firm focused exclusively on technology and tech-enabled services businesses. The firm also has experience working with Warburg, having acquired PayScale from Warburg in 2019.

Founded in 1974, Temasek is a Singaporean state-owned multinational investment firm. Its key focus investment areas include Consumer, Media & Technology, Life Sciences & Agri-Food, and Non-Bank Financial Services. Temasek and Warburg are both owners of healthcare technology company, Global Healthcare Exchange (GHX). Temasek and Permira are both owners of Golden Goose.

Not only have Warburg and Permira worked together in the past, the same deal team leaders from both firms in the Reorg deal are leading the Clearwater deal. Leaders from each firm mentioned in press releases (with relevant deal experience), include:

• Alex Stratoudakis, MD at Warburg Pincus (Reorg, Clearwater, Beacon)

• Angel Pu Shum, Principal at Warburg Pincus (Clearwater, Beacon)

• Andrew Young, Partner at Permira (Reorg, Clearwater, Carta)

• Alberto Riva, MD at Permira (Clearwater, Carta)

• Ashley Evans, Partner at Francisco Partners (Macrobond, SourceScrub)

*Andrew Young (Permira) and Cary Davis (Warburg Pincus) currently serve on the Board of Directors of Clearwater Analytics.

What Happens Next: The Practical Implications

Integration becomes the product - in public markets, integration is “execution risk” and distraction. In private markets, integration becomes the thesis. Unify Enfusion + Beacon + Bistro + Clearwater’s accounting backbone into a single operating layer for multi-asset portfolios.

Alternatives are the growth narrative - the private setting enables more aggressive innovation, especially around integrated investment management and alternatives/advanced analytics.

Competitive set shifts upward - this is no longer just “accounting software.” It’s adjacent to the broader investment technology stack where players compete on data model, controls/auditability, analytics depth, and workflow adoption.

Expect more M&A discipline - The “platform assembly” phase typically ends with either (a) consolidation pause + deep integration, or (b) continued tuck-ins to fill obvious gaps. Going private increases optionality for either path.

Who Happens Next: Potential M&A

Below is a practical bolt-on M&A map for Clearwater now that it’s private again, organized by why each category matters to the platform they’re clearly trying to build. This is not a “who’s for sale” list. It’s a systems-logic list. What Clearwater still lacks if it wants to be the institutional portfolio system of truth across public + private assets.

Post Enfusion, Beacon, and Bistro, Clearwater is converging toward:

• System of Record → accounting, reconciliation, audit-ready truth

• System of Insight → risk, performance, scenario modeling

• System of Workflow → portfolio managers, ops, compliance, reporting

The remaining gaps are (1) private asset depth, (2) document-driven data extraction, (3) benchmarking & peer context, and (4) regulatory / client reporting specialization. I’m admittedly not well versed in the landscapes of 2 or 4, so rather than ChatGPT it (or wait to conduct expert calls), I’ll just focus on 1 and 3.

Private markets data + workflows (the biggest remaining gap) - Clearwater has private credit visualization (Bistro) and modeling (Beacon), but it still lacks deep private asset lifecycle coverage: capital calls, waterfalls, fee mechanics, fund-level transparency. This space has long been dominated by S&P’s iLevel. FactSet acquired Cobalt in 2021.

• Chronograph, backed by Summit Partners, Carlyle Group, and Nasdaq Ventures, Chronograph last raised $20M in 2022.

• Allvue, formed by the combination of AltaReturn and Black Mountain, Allvue is owned by Vista Equity Partners, who acquired the company for $500M in 2019.

Benchmarking, peer data & market context - from “your truth” to “your truth vs the world”. Clearwater tells you what you own. It still doesn’t fully tell you how good that is. This segment is a bit trickier as there are fewer independent assets. Burgiss was acquired (remaining 66%) by MSCI in 2023 for $697M and Preqin was acquired by Blackrock in 2024 for $3.2B. Acquisition in this segment would likely require a carve-out, especially for investment firms where benchmarking is one service in a much broader suite, like Cambridge Associates and Hamilton Lane. Given the background with the Wilshire deal, Clearwater is no stranger to acquiring specific assets from a larger company.

• Cambridge Associates, owned by founders, Rothschild and Hall families, and Sofina

• Hamilton Lane, publicly traded ($7.7B market cap as of writing)

• Dakota, funding/ownership unknown

Final Thought

The first wave of investment platforms helped people decide faster. The next wave helps institutions be right when it matters. Clearwater isn’t trying to out-Bloomberg Bloomberg. It’s trying to become something far rarer. The place institutional financial reality actually lives. That’s why this deal matters… and why the story is only halfway written.

Additional Reading

• Milana Vinn at Reuters

• Ken Squire at 13D Monitor (pre-deal)