Affinity’s Relationship Intelligence Benchmark Report provides insight into the impact of relationship intelligence on the success of over 300 M&A deals
SAN FRANCISCO–(April 28, 2022)–Affinity, the relationship intelligence platform for dealmakers, today released its Investment Banking Industry Benchmark Report:Mergers & Acquisitions Edition. This report, which analyzed data from the Affinity platform, provides insight into the role of relationship intelligence in M&A deals. Affinity discovered that investment banks have recovered from the slowdown seen due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, closing deals 63% faster, generating 25% more mandates each month, and nearly doubling the number of potential buyers they spoke to in 2021.
“The government stimulus, highly volatile trading, and a surge of mergers and acquisitions activity brought on by the pandemic ended years of slowed market activity, and yet closing mandates hasn’t gotten any easier,” said Ray Zhou, CEO, Affinity. “For investment banks competing in a fast-growing market where businesses have a large and growing pool of options for both M&A and capital raising, relationship intelligence has become a key differentiator, enabling them to find and close mandates faster.”
This report uncovers the trends and insights relationship intelligence technology brings to investment banking and how gauging the strength of the relationships among the bank’s own team and potential clients and deal partners can lead to closing more deals.
Other key takeaways from the report include:
Europe is catching up. While the lion’s share of 2021’s 100 largest M&A deals came from the U.S., deal volume in Europe grew by a staggering 37.4% YoY to keep pace with U.S. deals.
Relationship intelligence reduces time-to-close. The quality of your business network, your ability to leverage warm introductions, managing relationships effectively, and targeting the right contacts at the right time are the most effective ways to close more mandates faster. In 2021, the average days-to-close decreased from 150 to an average of 55 days with the help of engaged networks.
Meeting volume has positive impact on deal flow. Increased email volume did not correlate with increasing potential buyers per mandate or to shorter mandate close times. In 2021 investment bankers sent 3.5% less emails, while they saw an increase in meetings by 19.6%.
Read the full report with more industry insights here and join Affinity on Thursday, May 19th at 10am PT/1pm ET for “Using Relationship Intelligence to Drive M&A,” for a discussion on how investment banks are using relationship intelligence to find and close more mandates, and how these trends could be affected by a forecasted market slowdown.
About Affinity
Affinity is a relationship intelligence platform that empowers dealmakers in relationship-driven industries to find, manage and close more deals. With the most automated relationship intelligence insights and technology, Affinity enables leaders to drive deals, free themselves from data drudgery and ensure their teams can take action with confidence, knowing the context and history of every relationship. The Affinity platform, including Affinity CRM, is used by over 2,000 relationship-driven organizations around the world. Founded in 2014, Affinity is headquartered in San Francisco and backed by leading investors including Menlo Ventures, Advance Venture Partners, 8VC and MassMutual Ventures.