Board Intelligence, the leading AI company working to improve board performance, has announced the sale of a majority stake to California-based private equity firm K1, valuing the London-based company at up to $300m (£230m).
The major investment will see founders Jennifer Sandberg, 44, and Pippa Page, 40, receive millions of pounds. The founders plan to use the K1 investment to drive international expansion of the company they founded in 2009.
Board Intelligence boasts a client base of 3,000, including high-profile names such as John Lewis, National Grid and ITV. The company operates three main divisions: a consultancy and two IT arms. One IT division runs a secure portal for distributing board papers, while the other provides an AI tool called Lucia, which helps boards assess the balance of the reports they receive. “If you’re writing a report and it’s 100% good news, it’s probably not a balanced report,” Page explained.
Prior to the K1 investment, Sandberg, Page and their families owned 40% of the company, with 12% held by 120 employees, 8% by angel investors such as Sir John Egan, and 41% by now-exited private equity firm Susquehanna. Most of the existing shareholders have retained their stakes, with the exception of one angel investor, the estate of the late Sir Mike Wilson, founder of St James’s Place.
Although the exact terms of the deal were not disclosed, Board Intelligence has seen significant growth, doubling in value from $100 million three years ago. Despite posting a loss of £859,000 in 2022, as reported in its most recent filing with Companies House, the company has since returned to profitability.
Sir John Egan, former chief executive of Jaguar and BAE Systems, has championed the company for its potential to simplify boardroom documentation. “I had just started as a non-executive chairman and was struck by the huge piles of boardroom documentation – often 200 to 300 pages long – and also by the fact that so often little thought had been given to what the boardroom meeting itself was supposed to achieve,” he said.