ACA Group, a New York-based financial services firm, has acquired Minneapolis-based Ethos ESG to bolster its presence in the growing market for data about environmental, social and governance actions being taken by public and private companies.
That data is used by financial advisers and financial firms to better strategize investment activities.
Luke Wilcox created Ethos in 2019 to provide investors like himself with information that helps gauge how well their portfolio affects social issues that matter to them. Under ACA Group's ownership, Wilcox will remain in Minneapolis as head of Ethos.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"We could have continued growing ourselves and had no urgency to sell, but saw the opportunity to significantly accelerate our growth and potential positive impact with ACA," Wilcox said. "With ACA, we get to continue being Ethos in the market and reach a large number of potential new clients across wealth managers, asset managers, hedge funds, private equity, and others."
Last year, Ethos closed on $550,000 in a seed round from private investors, and raised an additional $200,000 this year before being acquired. Wilcox previously said he was anticipating $300,000 in annual recurring revenue for 2022 and already has surpassed that goal.
In the Ethos platform, firms upload information about which social issues matter most to a specific client. The information helps financial advisers design a portfolio aligned with a client's causes, or it can show how well aligned a client's investments already are with those values and causes.
Advisers can also use the platform to search for information on specific companies. Since the company's launch, more than 75 financial services and wealth management firms across the U.S. and Australia have subscribed to the Ethos platform.
"This is an exciting step in helping to grow our presence in the ESG space and is ACA Group's first foray into analytics as a service," said Shvetank Shah, CEO of ACA Group, in a statement. "We are invigorated to be building out and launching our data capabilities, starting with Ethos ESG."
