Envestnet acquires Yodlee, a data analytics and account aggregation firm
Wealth management software and service provider, Envestnet has spent $590mn on its third acquisition this year. Envestnet is expanding as it aims to provide advisers with a comprehensive suite of tech offerings. Its latest acquisition will allow clients to link their bank and credit card details to their advisers&rsquo; platforms, enabling more comprehensive financial planning. Many have said that data analytics will lead the way for advisers giving them a better perspective.
Envestnet, the wealth management technology service provider, announced on Monday that it is acquiring Yodlee, a cloud-based data analytics company that provides account aggregation and various financial software.

Envestnet made the purchase of the Redwood Shores, Calif.-based company for $660 million in fully-diluted stock, at $18.88 per share, and $70 million in cash, for a total enterprise value of about $590 million.

It is the third acquisition that the firm has made this year alone, following online investment platform Upside in February and financial-planning software provider Finance Logix in May.

Envestnet’s main goal driving all of these acquisitions is to provide a full suite of technology offerings for financial advisers.

Yodlee’s financial software partners include Xignite and MoneyGuidePro. It claims five of the top 10 U.S. banks as clients.

“It’s what has been missing,” said Bill Crager, president of Envestnet. “We’ve got a very comprehensive wealth management and investment management platform, but we really haven’t engaged at all in the consumer finance part of an investor’s life.”

With this acquisition, advisers’ clients will be able to link their bank and credit card information to their advisers’ platform so that there is a fuller picture of their net worth. By using the data then generated by the software, advisers will be able to gauge what investment strategies they should implement for their clients.

“Bank accounts and credit card information or mortgages have been separate from investment life,” Mr. Crager said. “By acquiring Yodlee, we pull those pieces together in a very powerful way.”

Envestnet, which has about $84 billion in assets under management and assets under administration combined according to its latest SEC filing, has approximately 41,000 advisers. Yodlee is the tenth company it has either acquired or with which it has struck a service agreement.

Data analytics will soon be the name of the game for advisers who want to get a leg up on the competition. Many have said it will lead the way to a greater perspective enabling more comprehensive financial planning.

Envestnet released its second-quarter earnings on Monday, jumping up 22% in revenue year-over-year to about $26 million.

Joel Bruckenstein, the founder of the Technology Tools for Today (T3) conferences, said the acquisition makes a lot of sense for Envestnet, as firms around the industry try to make their ways through data analytics and aggregation.

“They are all trying to make more data available to their clients and in a more usable form,” Mr. Bruckenstein said. “Data was available before but not in a format that the end adviser could consume and really make use of it.”

He said that there are many opportunities for Envestnet to grow its business with this acquisition, noting the significance of Yodlee teaming up with MoneyGuidePro last year.