Thrive TRM, the leading talent relationship management platform, today announced it has acquired Incentiv, a dedicated executive compensation data network built by and for private equity firms and their portfolio companies.
In private equity, the highest-leverage talent decisions are also the hardest to benchmark: how to structure a competitive CEO package, how to stay ahead of retention risks across a global portfolio, and how to align executive incentives with value creation. The market data available to make these decisions has long been slow, generic, and poorly suited to the equity structures, market dynamics, and unique context of PE-backed businesses.
Incentiv was built to close that gap. Co-founded by private equity investor Matt Fanelli, Incentiv collects and standardizes compensation data directly from private equity firms and their portfolio companies, creating a trusted, member-contributed network of real-time benchmarks spanning cash, equity, and incentive structures across more than 500 PE-backed companies.
“Lack of trusted market data has long been a glaring problem in private equity talent. Incentiv was founded on the principle that the highest quality data, sourced from a network of like-minded investors and tailored to the private equity context, enables investors and talent leaders to make confident decisions,” said Matt Fanelli, Co-Founder of Incentiv. “We are excited to grow the Incentiv membership, put more high-quality data in the hands of our customers, and deliver new, innovative experiences that support decisions across the executive talent lifecycle.”
For private equity investors and talent leaders, the acquisition connects two decisions that have always belonged together: who is the right person for the role, and what package will motivate them to drive extraordinary business outcomes. Thrive customers will gain compensation intelligence alongside the workflows they already use to manage searches, talent pipelines, and leadership relationships.
“Thrive is designed to help clients make better executive talent decisions with greater speed, clarity, and confidence. Bringing Incentiv into the platform extends that value into one of the most important parts of the process: compensation,” said Lucinda Duncalfe, President of Thrive. “This gives private equity firms and portfolio leaders a more complete way to evaluate, attract, and retain top executives.”
As Incentiv’s membership grows with the scale of Thrive, the data powering every benchmark deepens for all members. Incentiv will operate as a standalone subsidiary within Thrive with member data continuing to be governed under the same standards members rely on today.
The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
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