TMX Group has acquired Verity, a provider of buy-side investment research management systems, data, and analytics. The deal strengthens the capabilities of TMX Datalinx, the company’s information services division, by broadening its offering across equities, fixed income, and private assets.
Verity’s core products include VerityRMS, a research management system, and VerityData, which delivers datasets and insights centred on public equity filings. These tools provide analytics on insider activity, share buybacks, executive compensation, and institutional holdings.“Our goal at TMX Datalinx has always been to globalise our offerings based on what our clients need,” says TMX Datalinx President Michelle Tran, in conversation with TradingTech Insight. “That’s why the Verity acquisition is such an excellent strategic fit for us; it addresses this goal through two unique components. Firstly, Verity brings a really valuable data component to the table. It gives us 20 years of high-quality, pristine data from US disclosure filings, which immediately expands our existing Canadian data to give us full North American coverage. From there, our plan is to expand globally. And having that kind of cleansed data is essential for modern applications, especially when you’re talking about AI.
“Secondly, it solves a key challenge for our clients with its workflow management tool, the VerityRMS. The system lets clients integrate their own first-party data – things like emails and memos – with whatever market data they require. The acquisition aligns perfectly with our strategy because it provides both that critical data set and a powerful workflow tool. This combination will help our clients organise their information in an accurate, auditable way, and let them integrate their own data with global sources much more effectively.”
Through the addition of Verity, TMX aims to enhance its support for a global client base. The acquisition is expected to improve clients’ ability to manage and leverage intellectual capital, while integrating advanced data and workflow tools.
“The great thing about Verity is that its platform is very modern,” says Tran. “One of the things that really attracted us to the Verity workflow platform was its UX and UI, its ease of integration and use, and its configurability for their 300 buy-side clients. It also offers a centralised API, similar to Datalinx, which allows clients to digest and use the data in a normalised way. Those API capabilities will require very little effort to integrate into our existing client distribution methods.”
TMX Datalinx intends to continue developing both platforms, with a focus on advancing their artificial intelligence capabilities to improve investment outcomes and operational efficiency.
“Verity have taken a highly practical approach to AI, embedding real-world use cases directly into their products,” notes Tran. “From a Verity Data perspective, they have been able to use AI for operational efficiency, threading together various databases to make the data itself more efficient for clients. And clients can then use whatever AI model they have to implement that.”
She continues: “They also allow clients to use their choice of AI model on the RMS side. For example, if there’s an earnings call for a company in a client’s portfolio, they’ll be alerted and can then ask the system to, for instance, ‘Quickly summarise my analyst’s takeaways and tell me if and how this materially impacts our thesis. It’s impressive how they have been able to leverage this technology to bring their clients along on the AI journey.”
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
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