Governance solutions and proxy voting services company Glass Lewis announced today the acquisition of investment stewardship data platform Esgaia.

Founded in 2021 by Anton Ljung, Frida Femling, and Simon Kristiansson, Stockholm-based Esgaia offers a suite of products aimed at helping investors manage data related to engagement with portfolio companies. The company’s technology streamlines processes and workflows, allowing for more efficient investor engagement with companies.

Anton Ljung, founder and CEO of Esgaia, said:

“Working collaboratively to bring clients’ voting and engagement data together into one platform, we can streamline clients’ workflows and simplify their reporting. We are excited to join Glass Lewis and gain the scale needed to bring Esgaia’s purpose-built platform to a broader audience of institutional investors, helping them to drive better outcomes for their clients.”

According to Glass Lewis, the acquisition comes as investors currently handle engagement tracking and reporting through manual tasks, spreadsheets, or technology workarounds from disparate internal systems. The firm said that the transaction will help it to more holistically serve clients in markets like Europe and Australia, where the combination of informed proxy voting and issuer engagement is integral to investors’ stewardship efforts.

Glass Lewis CEO Bob Mann said:

“The importance of investment stewardship is increasing in all markets, but nowhere is it more ingrained in the investment process than in Europe. We’re excited to leverage our acquisition of Esgaia to accelerate our integration of corporate governance research, proxy voting and issuer engagement data into a single platform, and by doing so, help institutional asset managers and pension funds be more effective stewards of capital.”