SJV Data Solutions and Wholesale Screening Solutions announced today they had both taken a capital investment from Gallant Capital Group and will join forces .
Congratulations to both organizations and the team at Gallant Capital for pulling off a monumental deal! We’ve talked to several CRAs this morning and many seem interested to see what more options under a combined organization will look like.
According to the release; SJV and WSS provide a wide array of mission-critical background screening data to consumer reporting agencies (“CRAs”) and other background screening companies, including criminal record data and court research, resume verification, medical compliance, international background screening, and continuous monitoring, with new products routinely being added. Gallant invested in partnership with Scott Vanek, Matt Lowers, and additional sellers and members of management who collectively remain material owners of the combined business.
At first glance, SJV/Wholesale has emerged as the strongest competitor to Appriss/Equifax. Their product lines don’t perfectly overlap. But there are enough similarities that we suspect a number of CRAs will be choosing one or the other, not both.
From a supply chain perspective, this is further evidence of a shrinking supply pool. But at the same time, we’re seeing a ton of innovation from new startups. So buyers will have fewer options in terms of who to buy from, but there is an emerging sect of smaller, well funded companies challenging a lot of old paradigms inside our space. We’re looking forward to seeing the decisions CRAs make on what to sell end users, and how they package these offerings.
On a personal note, we are really excited to see all these acquisitions unfold. Suppliers, CRAs. Mergers and Acquisitions. IPOs. Private Equity. We’ve been waiting several years for the type of consolidations we’ve seen these past few months. Big data (and big money) has moved in and the next 2-3 years will be highly volatile, to say the least.
The new, combined entity will be led by CEO Scott Vanek, founder and CEO of SJV. and Matt Lowers, President of Wholesale Screening. Congrats to all parties!