25 August 2022 – Handshakes, an award-winning data analytics and risk monitoring solution specializing in corporate intelligence, closed its latest investment round led by S&P Global and Nikkei Inc.

S&P Global is the third corporate investor, joining earlier investors Nikkei Inc and SPH Media Holdings Pte Ltd. S&P Global has taken a new 15.87% stake, Nikkei Inc increased their stake to 25.87%, and SPH Media Holdings Pte. Ltd. remains invested with a 17.55% stake. This latest investment round values Handshakes at US$63.0m.

Handshakes has a strong regional client base in audit, banking, investigation and enforcement. The Handshakes platform increases corporate transparency by giving clients access and insights to complex corporate data centered on companies and individuals. Unique AI technologies enable reconciliation of entities across multiple data sources and jurisdictions – including government data, news and private repositories.

“The new funding, together with support from our strategic investors S&P Global, Nikkei Inc, and SPH Media, will be used to build new product features and launch Handshakes onto the global stage. This includes onboarding worldwide data sources, developing new data reconciliation and monitoring techniques, and building a world-class team across the globe. Clients can look forward to accessing a greater wealth of corporate insights through Handshakes.” says Daryl Neo, CEO and Founding Director of Handshakes.

“Handshakes is an exciting innovator in linking corporate data and news and combining it with unique visualizations to derive insights into companies, including private companies,” added Clement Ma, Senior Director, Head of Company Information Services in Asia- Pacific for S&P Global Market Intelligence. “This collaboration aligns with our continued expansion into SMEs and private markets, building on our strategic commitment to the Asia-Pacific region.”

“It’s fascinating to be enhancing our partnership with Handshakes and welcoming S&P Global as a co-shareholder. We have achieved much together over the past few years since Handshakes came on board as a technology partner of ScoutAsia, Nikkei’s AI-driven information platform and have a shared vision of making the Asian market accessible to the global audience, by bringing quality content and technologies together.” says Toshio Machida, Managing Executive Officer in charge of ScoutAsia business, Nikkei Inc.

About Handshakes
Founders Daryl Neo and Charles Poon were former regulators at the Singapore Exchange (SGX), where they experienced firsthand the difficulty of discovering connections between persons and companies.

In an effort to solve these challenges, they founded Handshakes in 2011 and began working on a solution that combined reliable corporate data with data linking and visualisation technologies – enabling greater market transparency and faster risk detection. The result was the creation of the award-winning Handshakes platform.

For more information, visit www.handshakes.ai.

About S&P Global
S&P Global (NYSE: SPGI) provides essential intelligence. We enable governments, businesses and individuals with the right data, expertise and connected technology so that they can make decisions with conviction. From helping our customers assess new investments to guiding them through ESG and energy transition across supply chains, we unlock new opportunities, solve challenges and accelerate progress for the world.

We are widely sought after by many of the world’s leading organizations to provide credit ratings, benchmarks, analytics and workflow solutions in the global capital, commodity and automotive markets. With every one of our offerings, we help the world’s leading organizations plan for tomorrow, today.

About Nikkei Inc
Nikkei Inc. is a world-renowned media brand for Asian news, respected for quality journalism and for being a trusted provider of business news and information. Founded as a market news provider in Japan in 1876, Nikkei has grown into one of the world’s largest media corporations, with 37 foreign editorial bureaus and approximately 1,500 journalists worldwide. Nikkei acquired the UK-based Financial Times in 2015. Our combined digital and print circulation totals over 2.5 million, and we are continually deploying new technologies to increase our readership.