Foresight makes successful exit from industry-leading research

Substantive, with bases in London and Edinburgh, provides research and market data benchmarking to a growing base of over 100 global clients, across Europe and North America, including asset managers, hedge funds, wealth managers, sell-side institutions and private markets.

This exit has enabled Substantive to join Netherlands-headquartered Euronext, the pan-European stock exchange and market infrastructure provider. Foresight has achieved a 2.4x return on its original investment and marks the first exit from the Foresight Scottish Growth Fund, which is backed by the Scottish Government.

Substantive was founded in 2015 by Chief Executive Mike Carrodus who partnered with Foresight in 2020, a move which enabled significant growth, including the launch of a technology hub in Edinburgh alongside significant investment in new products including market data and ESG research benchmarking products.

Foresight also introduced Graham Paterson, an experienced private equity and FinTech founder, as Chair, to support Mike as the Company scaled at pace. A new Chief Technology Officer was appointed to oversee the launch of a Technology Hub in Edinburgh, with the tech team driving the automation of Substantive products which facilitated its rapid growth.

Foresight invests in regional growth and buyout deals to support founders, entrepreneurs and management teams to achieve their growth ambitions or release equity from their company. In addition, it invests venture capital funding into innovative, fast-growing companies in the enterprise software, advanced engineering and deep-tech sectors that are looking to scale responsibly at pace.

Mike Carrodus, CEO of Substantive Research said: “Foresight have been an excellent partner for us as we have grown rapidly, bringing a flexible approach, great industry knowledge and connections as well as funding.

“Euronext’s acquisition of Substantive Research underlines our team’s hard work in creating a unique price benchmarking database in investment research and market data. With the research market poised for yet more regulatory-driven changes, plus market data consumers grappling with increasing costs and pricing opacity, we are excited to be able to accelerate our coverage and data depth. We can accelerate development into areas where we know our clients need greater market transparency.”

Nick Mettyear, Investment Director at Foresight Group, said: "Substantive Research is a strong entrepreneurial success story and it’s been a pleasure working with Mike and the team to build a tech-enhanced business to benchmark price and supply in the investment research and data markets. Substantive is now very well-placed to continue its progress as part of the Euronext group and we wish the team well for the future.

“We invest in growing companies across all sectors and transaction types, including management buyouts, management buy-ins, equity release and growth capital. In this case, we are delighted to have helped Substantive Research establish its technology hub in Edinburgh, bringing investment and skilled job opportunities to the Scottish economy.

“We have significant funding available to invest in growing businesses across the UK and Ireland and our teams are keen to meet entrepreneurs, management teams and their advisers to discuss how we can support their growth strategies and realise their ambitions.”