Diligent acquires Galvanize

Submitted 25/02/2021 - 10:18am

Diligent Corporation (Diligent), a governance company with a platform used by nearly 700,000 board directors and leaders, across 19,000 clients, is to acquire Galvanize, a global leader in SaaS governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) software. 

Financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed. 

The Galvanize transaction follows Diligent’s planned acquisition of Steele Compliance Solutions (Steele), a specialist in ethics and compliance SaaS, which the Company signed in February 2021. Both transactions are expected to close in March.
 
With the acquisition of Galvanize, Diligent will become the largest SaaS GRC provider. The combined solution with enrichment from Steele will enable an integrated GRC picture – from Audit, Risk, Information Security, Ethics and Compliance across the organisation directly to the CEO, CFO and Board. Customers will benefit from a powerful operating system that enables governance programs organisation-wide, backed by trusted concierge level customer support with NPS scores over 50.
 
Galvanize, the only company with comprehensive “Leader” recognition from both Gartner and Forrester analysts, brings the only integrated cloud GRC platform powered by robotic data automation across security, risk management, compliance, and audit software for 6,000 global customers in 130 countries, including more than half of the Fortune 1000 and S&P 500. As a FedRAMP-authorised cloud service provider, Galvanize is trusted by more than 900 government agencies worldwide, including most large agencies in the US federal government, to advance their missions transparently and efficiently.
 
Diligent plans to enhance its modern governance platform with Galvanize’s 11 integrated risk and compliance solutions, bringing new insights to its leading board and leadership application and operational governance solutions. Galvanize’s flagship cloud-based platform – HighBond – aggregates risk and compliance concerns to top-level strategy across the organisation, with real-time dashboards of comprehensive business metrics to the C-Suite and Board.
 
“We are on the cusp of a new era. Executives and their boards are navigating incredible challenges and opportunities across all of their stakeholders. More than ever, they need an integrated view of data and information, as well as clear visibility and confidence for decision-making, to effectively maximise performance and mitigate risk,” says Brian Stafford, CEO of Diligent. “Risk and Compliance data traditionally sits in disparate systems across audit, compliance and risk functions and make it difficult and laborious to combine into one view for the CFO, CEO and Board. Together with Galvanize and Steele, we are excited to drive even greater impact for our clients through a completely integrated GRC platform so they can run more effective, equitable, sustainable, and successful organisations.”
 
Laurie Schultz, president & CEO of Galvanize, says: “This transaction fast forwards our vision as the operating system of conscious organisations and furthers our mission to make GRC today’s mission-critical enterprise platform. Joining forces with Diligent, the clear market leader in the governance space, represents an immediate, material and meaningful redefinition of the USD41 billion GRC market. With Diligent’s presence in thousands of boardrooms across the globe, our combined offering ensures all levels of an organisation will have the real-time insight they need to manage risk and optimise performance.”
 
Credit Suisse served as the exclusive financial advisor, and Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP served as the legal advisor to Diligent. For Galvanize, Evercore served as the financial advisor, and Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP served as the legal advisor.
 

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