Q2 2024 Forge Global Holdings Inc Earnings Call

Owen, Kelly: Yeah, I mean, we've felt this, though, for a while, Owen, Kelly.

Dominic Paschel: We've talked about this in the past qualitatively, I think Mark has pointed it out, but we did want to include in the Supplement this time the difference between IPO activity and late-stage investment activity.

Mark Lee: We talked about this in the past qualitatively. I think Mark has pointed it out, but we did want to include in the supplemental this time some of the historical correlation that we're seeing. So, we're really trying to back it up with a little bit more detailed data, but we've seen a relationship here between IPO activity and late-stage investment activity.

Patrick Moley: You know, we've talked about this in the past qualitatively. I think Mark has pointed it out, but we did want to include in the supplemental this time some of the historical correlation that we're seeing. So we're really trying to back it up with a little bit more detailed data, but we've seen a relationship here between IPO activity and late-stage investment activity.

Speaker Change: We've talked about this in the past qualitatively. I think Mark has pointed it out, but we did want to include in the supplemental this time.

Speaker Change: some of the historical correlation that we're seeing so we're really trying to back it up with a little bit more detailed data but we've seen a relationship here between between IPO activity and and late-stage investment activity

Owen Lau: Got it. And then going back to the expansion reduction plan, could you please maybe add more color on how much savings we expect to capture for the second half of this year.

Owen Lau: Got it. And then going back to the expansion reduction plan, could you please maybe add more color on how much savings you expect to capture for the second half of this year? I mean, should we expect just half of the $11.3 million this year and then the full $11.3 million in 2025?

Speaker Change: Got it. And then going back to the expansion reduction plan, could you please maybe add more color on how much savings you expect to capture for the second half of this year? I mean, should we expect just half of that $11.3 million this year and then the full $11.3 million in 2025? And then will there be any like other reinvestment so that, you know, the total expense saving would be lower than that? Any more color would be helpful. Thanks.

Owen Lau: I mean, should we expect just half of the 11.3 million dollars this year and in the full 11.3 million dollars in 2025. And then will there be any like other we investment so that, you know, the total expense saving would be lower than that? Any more color would be helpful.

Speaker: Thanks. Yeah, thanks.

Dominic Paschel: Yeah, thanks. Thanks for the question, Owen.

Owen Lau: Thanks for the question, Owen. For, you know, as you kind of look at your models, what I would say, you know, specifically I broke out the 11.3 million. The 11.3 million is against our budget expenses. And we kind of said it's primarily head count related, you know, with some other expenses as well. Now, if you look at kind of the saves relative to kind of run rate, I think you can take that 11.3 million and assume that, roughly speaking, two thirds of it is against our current run rate. And one third is kind of cost future cost avoidance.

Dominic Paschel: For, you know, as you kind of look at your models, what I would say, specifically, I broke out the $11.3 million. The $11.3 million is against our budgeted expenses, and we kind of said it was primarily headcount-related, you know, with some other expense saves as well. Now, if you look at kind of the saves relative to kind of run rate, I think you can take that $11.3 million and $0.3 million and assume that roughly speaking, two-thirds of it is against our current run rate, and one-third is kind of future cost avoidance.

Speaker Change: Yeah, thanks. Thanks for the question, Owen.

Speaker Change: For, you know, as you kind of look at your models, what I would say...

Speaker Change: You know, specifically, I broke out the $11.3 million. The $11.3 million is against our budgeted expenses, and we kind of said it's primarily headcount related, you know, with some other expense saves as well. Now, if you look at kind of the saves relative to kind of run rate, I think you can take that $11.3 million.

Speaker Change: point three million and assume that roughly roughly speaking two-thirds of it is against our current run rate and one-third is kind of cost future cost avoidance.

Dominic Paschel: So I think the bulk of it should be achieved in Q3 and in Q4, but there's probably some straggling timing-related issues, but the vast majority should benefit as us on a go-forward basis. We are also very specific to say that excludes severance, Owen, and obviously severance would be a one-time exclusion.

Speaker: So I think that that's the bulk of it should be achieved, you know, in Q3 and in Q4, but there's probably some straggling, you know, timing-related issues, but the vast majority should be released. We should should should be should benefit as us in on a go forward basis.

Speaker Change: So I think that that's the bulk of it should be achieved, you know in Q3 and in Q4 But there's probably some straggling now timing related issues, but but the vast majority should be released

Speaker Change: We should benefit as us on a go-forward basis. We are also very specific to say that excludes severance, Owen, and obviously severance would be a one-time expense.

Michael Cho: We are also very specific to say that it excludes severance, Owen, and obviously, severance would be a one-time expense.

Speaker: We are also very specific to say that excludes severance, Owen, and obviously severance would be a one-time expense.

Owen Lau: All right, got it. There was a question. There was a question to about any more new investments in there, too.

Dominic Paschel: There was a question too about any more new investments in there too, is that right Owen?

Speaker Change: and

Speaker Change: There was a question too about any more new investments in there too. Is that right, Owen?

Owen Lau: Is that right, Owen? Yeah, exactly. Like would you, would you, would you invest some of the safe into the business, maybe this year or next year, like schooling this happens?

Owen Lau: Yeah, exactly. We will invest some of the savings into the business, maybe this year or next year, excluding the savings.

Owen: Yeah, exactly. We invest some of the save into the business, maybe this year or next year, excluding the severance.

Kelly Rodriques: The short answer is no. We are fully committed to continuing the investment levels in the next-gen platform, with this taken into account. So we expect, as Mark said, to realize the full amount in 2025 and still continue to make investments in ongoing margin expansion and efficiency with the people that we've got.

Speaker: The short answer is no. We are fully committed to continuing the investment levels in the next gen platform, with this taken into account. So we expect to, as Mark said, realize the full amount in 2025 and still continue to make investments in ongoing margin expansion and efficiency with the people that we've got here now. You know, when I would, as we've said in prior calls, I mean, even though we've had a hiring freeze for the past seven quarters, right, we've worked really hard to try to make sure we're focusing our resources on the top priorities and opportunities.

Owen: The short answer is no. We are fully committed to continuing the investment levels in the next-gen platform.

Speaker Change: with this taken into account. So we expect.

Speaker Change: to, as Mark said, realize the full amount in 2025 and still continue to make investments in ongoing margin expansion and efficiency with the people that we've got here now.

Kelly Rodriques: You know, and I would, as we've said in prior calls, even though we've had a hiring freeze for the past seven quarters, right? We've worked really hard to try to make sure we're focusing our resources on the top priorities and opportunities, you know, and as we've discussed before, even during those seven quarters of hiring freezes, we've been able to kind of initiate our efforts in Forge Europe, roll out our data product, Forge Pro, and put out our Forge Index, you know, our option-based lending program.

Speaker Change: Yeah, Owen, I would, as we've said in prior calls, I mean, even though we've had a hiring freeze for the past seven quarters.

Owen: Right? We've worked really hard to try to make sure we're...

Speaker: You know, and as we've discussed before, even during those seven quarters of hiring freezes, we've been able to kind of initiate our efforts in for Europe, roll out our data product for pro, but our forage index, you know, our option-based lending program. So, you know, even kind of in a constrained cost control environment, obviously, we always seek to prioritize our resources. which, kind of that, the opportunities that have the biggest pay back.

Owen: focusing our resources on the top

Speaker Change: And as we've discussed before, even during those seven quarters of hiring freezes, we've been able to kind of initiate our efforts in Forge Europe , roll out our beta product Forge Pro, put out our Forge Index.

Kelly Rodriques: So, you know, even kind of in a constrained cost control environment, obviously, we always seek to prioritize our resources, kind of the opportunities that have the biggest payback. Yeah, just a reminder to everybody on the call, we did talk last quarter about the rollout of our global order book, the extensible capability for us to now expose on a global level. This is, as Mark referenced earlier, part of how our revenue contribution from Europe has started to emerge, and, um... You know, we are seeing now that relationships in Europe, having access to counterparties through that extensible global order book, are now starting to drive revenue for the business. We'll talk more about that in the future.

Owen: You know, our option-based lending program, so, you know, even kind of in a constrained cost control environment, obviously, we always seek to prioritize our resources towards...

Speaker: Yeah, just a reminder to everybody on the call. We did talk last quarter about the rollout of our global order book, the extensible capability for us to now expose Forge on a global level. This is, as Mark referenced earlier, part of how our revenue contribution from Europe has started to emerge. And you know, we are seeing now that relationships in Europe having access to counterparties through that extensible global order book are now starting to drive revenue for the business. We'll talk more about that in future quarters.

Owen: kind of the opportunities that at the biggest y just a reminder to everybody on the call we did talk last quarter about the rollout of our our global order book the extsible capability for us to now expose

Owen: FORGE® on a global level. This is, as Mark referenced earlier, part of how

Speaker Change: Our revenue contribution from Europe has started to emerge.

Patrick Moley: You know, we are seeing now that relationships in Europe, having access to counterparties through that extensible global order book, are now starting to drive revenue for the business. We'll talk more about that in future.

Owen: And, you know, we are seeing now that relationships in Europe , having access to counterparties through that extensible global order book, are now starting to drive revenue for the business. We'll talk more about that in future quarters.

Speaker: Thanks a lot.

Speaker Change: Thanks a lot.

Jeffrey Schmitt: Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Smith with William Blair. Please go ahead. Hi, thank you. So, how is your data business doing in this environment with transaction activity up nicely in the quarter? And what are you doing to increase adoption there? I think you've mentioned that last quarter versus kind of focusing on growth, but just curious what you're doing there and how that has been performing. So, I think one of the things that we referenced previously is a focus on data adoption. And we have really employed a strategy this year to get forged data everywhere.

Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Smith with William Blair. Please go ahead. Hi. Thank you.

Speaker Change: Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Smith with William Blair. Please go ahead.

Kenneth Worthington: Hi, thank you. So, how is your data business doing in this environment, with transaction activity up nicely in the quarter, and what are you doing to increase adoption there? I think you mentioned that last quarter versus kind of focusing on growth, but just curious what you're doing there and how that has been performing.

Jeff Smith: Hi, thank you. So, how is your data business doing in this environment with transaction activity up nicely in the quarter, and what are you doing to increase adoption there? I think you mentioned that last quarter versus kind of focusing on growth, but just curious what you're doing there and how that has performed.

Jeff Smith: Hi, thank you. So, how is your data business doing in this environment with transaction activity up nicely in the quarter, and what are you doing to increase adoption there? I think you'd mentioned that last quarter versus kind of focusing on growth, but just curious what you're doing there and how that has been performing.

Kelly Rodriques: So I think one of the things that we referenced previously is a focus on data adoption, and um... We have really employed a strategy this year to get Forge data everywhere. I think we wanted to keep the focus of our statements today on our performance, our optimism, and essentially the cost savings decisions that we've made. I will say this, we are seeing a very good uptake for Forge Pro and on the use of Forge data, and I look forward to reporting on some specifics of this in our next earnings call. But all love.

Speaker Change: So, I think one of the things that we referenced previously is a focus on data adoption.

Kelly Rodriques: We really employed a strategy this year to get Forge data everywhere. I think we wanted to keep the focus of our statements today on our performance, our optimism, and essentially the cost savings decisions that we've made. I will say this, we are seeing a very good uptake on Forge Pro and on the use of Forge data, and I look forward to reporting on some specifics of this in our next earnings call. But all love. I'll let Mark reference any of the specifics that we've got. Yeah, you know, the only...

Jeff Smith: and

Speaker Change: We have

Speaker Change: really employed a strategy this year to get FORGE data everywhere. I think we wanted to keep the focus of our statements today on our performance, our optimism.

Speaker: I think we wanted to keep the focus of our statements today on our performance, our optimism, and essentially the cost savings decisions that we've made. I will say this. We are seeing very good uptake on Fort Pro and on the use of forged data, and look forward to reporting on some specifics of this in our next earnings call.

Speaker Change: and essentially the cost.

Speaker Change: Savings decisions that we've made. I will say this...

Speaker Change: We are seeing very good uptake on Forge Pro and on the use of Forge data and look forward to reporting on some specifics of this and our next earnings call, but all love.

Speaker: But I'll let Mark reference any of the specifics that we've got. Yeah, the only thing else that I would add, Jeff, is just as a reminder to the entire group. But, you know, we think about, you can think about our data offerings kind of in three buckets. Our forged product, hard to get it at institutional trading clients. Our subscription-based forged intelligence product, you know, this hard to get really at clients that are not specifically looking to trade but find the data very helpful, you know, to their business. A good example we've quoted in the past are venture debt, you know, businesses.

Mark Lee: I'll let Mark reference any of the specifics that we've got. Yeah, the only thing else that I would add, Jeff, is just as a reminder to the entire group, but, you know, we think about our data offerings kind of in three buckets. The Forge Pro product targeted at institutional trading clients, and our subscription-based Forge Intelligence product that's targeted really at clients that are not specifically looking to trade but find the data very helpful to their business.

Speaker Change: I'll let Mark reference any of the specifics that we've got. Yeah, you know, the only thing else that I would add, Jeff, is just as a reminder to, you know, the entire group, but...

Mark: You know, we think about, you can think about our data offerings kind of in three buckets. Our Forge Pro product targeted at institutional trading clients.

Kelly Rodriques: our subscription-based Forge Intelligence product, you know, that's targeted really at clients that are not specifically looking to trade but find the data very helpful, you know, to their business. A good example we've quoted in the past are like venture, you know, venture debt, you know, businesses. And then the third, you know, and what, as you know, Jeff, I'm personally really excited about, but our whole drive data business, and that's, you know, Forge price and the Forge indices, right?

Speaker Change: our subscription-based Forge Intelligence product.

Speaker Change: You know, that's targeted really at clients that are not specifically looking to trade but find the data very helpful, you know, to their business. A good example we've quoted in the past are like venture, you know, venture debt.

Mark Lee: A good example we've quoted in the past is venture debt businesses. And then the third, and what, as you know, Jeff, I'm personally really excited about, our whole drive data business, and that's, you know, Forge price and the Forge indices, right? And there are, you know, two indices, our Forge private market index, as well as the investable Forge equity private market index. So, you know, we think about our data business kind of in those three different buckets and, you know, plug it away and have a lot of optimism for the future.

Speaker: And then the third, you know, and what, as you know, Jeff, I'm personally really excited about that our whole drive data business. And that's, you know, forged price and the forged indices, right? And there's, you know, two indices: the forged private market index as well as the investible forged liquidity private market index. So, so, you know, we think about our data business kind of in those three different buckets. And, you know, plug it away and have a lot of optimism for the future opportunity.

Speaker Change: businesses. And then the third, and what, as you know, Jeff, I'm personally really excited about, but our whole Drive Data business, and that's.

Kelly Rodriques: And there are, you know, two indices: the Forge private market index as well as the investable Forge equity private market index. So, you know, we think about our data business kind of in those three different buckets and, you know, plugging away, and have a lot of optimism for future opportunities.

Kelly Rodriques: you know, Forge Price and the Forge Indices, right? And there's, you know, two indices, our Forge Private Market Index, as well as the...

Kelly Rodriques: the investible

Kelly Rodriques: or liquidity

Kelly Rodriques: Private Market Index. So, you know, we think about our data business kind of in those three different buckets and, you know, plug it away and have a lot of optimism for the future opportunity.

Jeffrey Schmitt: Great. And then, you know, what does the competitive landscape look like actually for private market indexes? I mean, is there, is there many out there today, or I guess do you foresee many kind of emerging in the market?

Jeff Smith: Great. And then, you know, what does the competitive landscape look like actually for private market indexes? I mean, are there many out there today, or do you foresee many kind of emerging in the market? And, you know, what do you see as your kind of advantage if they do?

Speaker Change: Great. And then, you know, what does the competitive landscape look like, actually, for private market indexes? I mean, is there...

Speaker Change: Is there many out there today, or I guess do you foresee many kind of emerging in the market? And, you know, what do you see as your kind of advantage if they do?

Speaker: And, you know, what do you see is your kind of advantage if they do? Yeah, this is a really interesting question because there's been a fair amount of news actually coming out of some larger places. I'm sure everyone has seen the commitment that BlackRock just made in their recent acquisition about the emerging passive strategies and products relating to the private market. We see this as an incredibly powerful sign of what's coming next in the market. We believe part of our excitement around derives and index data is that having funds that are built on passive strategies and passive opportunities is going to open up this market for a whole set of participants that aren't here now.

Alexander Kramm: Yeah, this is a really interesting question because there's been a fair amount of news actually coming out about passive strategies and passive opportunities, which are going to open up this market for a whole set of participants that aren't here now. And so we've believed in this strategy for a couple of years, and as we reported previously, we now have our first Most of what's out there today that has been cited as or indexed

Kelly Rodriques: Yeah, this is a really interesting question because there's been a fair amount of news actually coming out of some larger places. I'm sure everyone has seen the commitment that BlackRock just made in their recent acquisition of emerging passive strategies and products relating to the private market. We see this as an incredibly powerful sign of what's coming next in the market. We believe part of our excitement around derived and index data is that having funds that are built on passive strategies and passive opportunities is going to open up this market to a whole set of participants that aren't here now.

Alexander Kramm: Yeah, this is a really interesting question because there's been a fair amount of news actually coming out of...

Speaker Change: some larger places. I'm sure everyone...

Alexander Kramm: has seen the commitment that BlackRock just made.

Alexander Kramm: in their recent acquisition about emerging passive strategies and products.

Alexander Kramm: Relating to the private market. We see this as an incredibly powerful sign of what's coming next in the market. We believe part of our excitement around derived and index data is that having funds that are built

Alexander Kramm: Opportunities is gonna open up this market for a whole set of participants that aren't here now. And so, we've believed in this strategy for a couple of years, and as we've reported previously, we now have our first...

Kelly Rodriques: And so we've believed in this strategy for a couple of years, and as we reported previously, we now have our first Index, Investible Index, powered by Forge's Private Market Index. We see more of that coming, but I'd say as it relates to competitive... Most of what's out there today that have been cited as being indexed aren't using the depth of clean data that Forge has as the market volume leader. We're seeing indexes announced that are using fund marks, which we believe are a less reliable and more stale source of data by which to build a product off of.

Speaker: And so we've believed in this strategy for a couple of years. And as we reported previously, we now have our first index, investible index, powered by Ford's Private Market Index. We see more of that coming, but I'd say as it relates to competitive, most of what's out there today that have been cited as indexes aren't using the depth of clean data that Ford has as the market volume leader. We're seeing indexes announced that are using fund marks, which we believe are a less reliable and more stale source of data by which to build a product off from.

Alexander Kramm: index investival impact towered by forge by forges private market index we see more of that coming but i'd say as it relates to competitive most of what's out there today that have been cited as as indexes

Alexander Kramm: aren't using the depth of clean data that Forge has as the market volume leader. We're seeing indexes announced that are using fund marks.

Alexander Kramm: which we believe are a less reliable and more stale source.

Kelly Rodriques: And so we are really excited about our position in the market here. As far as competition is concerned, this is still a business from a revenue-generating standpoint that's pretty small. And there are a number of small players out there that are aggregating data from third-party sources. But we believe that we've got a competitive advantage given the depth of our global order book. We talked about some of these metrics earlier in the call, and we expect that at some point, that part of the market is going to consolidate. There are just too many small players out there to raise capital with very little and meaningful revenue to support additional investment.

Speaker: And so we are, we're really excited about our position in the market here.

Alexander Kramm: of data by which to build a product off from.

Alexander Kramm: And so we are, we're really excited about our position in the market here.

Speaker: As far as competition, this is still a business from a revenue-generating standpoint that's pretty small. And there's a number of small players out there that are aggregating data from third-party sources. We believe that we've got a competitive advantage. Given the depth of our global order book, we talked about some of these metrics earlier in the call. And we expected at some point that part of the market is going to consolidate. There are just too many small players out there that raise capital with very little and meaningful revenue to support additional investment. So we're watching, and we're continuing to lead from the front.

Alexander Kramm: as far as competition this is still a business from a revenue generating standpoint that's pretty small and there's a number of small players out there that are aggreavating data from third party sources

Alexander Kramm: We believe that we've got a competitive advantage.

Speaker Change: given the depth of our global order book we talked about some of these metrics earlier in the call

Alexander Kramm: And we expect that at some point that part of the market is going to consolidate.

Speaker Change: There are just too many small players out there to raise capital with very little and meaningful revenue to support additional investment. So we're watching.

Kelly Rodriques: So we're watching, and we're continuing to lead from the front, but we think this is a really exciting part of our future, and we're considering when and if to start breaking this out and starting reporting on some of the KPIs separately. But we'll consider that in the future. For now, we believe 2024 will largely be a year focused on continuing to build the highest source of high-quality data in the space and getting our name and brand out there associated with a singular source of truth for pricing. We're excited about where this is going, but we'll look for the future to start reporting on it.

Speaker: But we think this is a really exciting part of our future.

Alexander Kramm: And we're continuing to lead from the front.

Speaker: And we're considering when and if to start breaking this out and start reporting on some of the KPIs separately. But we'll consider that in the future. For now, we believe 2024 will largely be a year focused on continuing to build the highest source of high quality data in the space and getting our name and brand out there associated with a singular source of truth for pricing. So we're excited about where this is going, but we'll look for the future to start reporting on it.

Alexander Kramm: But we think this is a really exciting part of our future, and we're considering when and if to start breaking this out and start reporting on some of the KPIs separately, but we'll consider that in the future. For now, we believe 2024 will largely be...

Alexander Kramm: year focused on continuing to build the highest source of high-quality data in the space and getting our name and brand out there associated with a singular source of truth for pricing. So we're excited about where this is going but we'll look for the future to start reporting on it.

Mark Lee: Hey Jeff, I would add just a few comments on top of Kelly's Obviously as Kelly referenced the BlackRock acquisition of Prequin MSCI you know with their they completed their acquisition of Burgess and rolled out 130 I think was number in the C's I mean those are both as Kelly mentioned in reference those are both situations where they have fun level information We think it's very different from secondary market You know pricing at an individual company level, and then you see a lot of articles out about people I mean Larry Fink talked about indices you talk you hear discussions around ETFs you know there's a closed-end fund out there that You know has been in the press There's a lot of attention and desire for people to get access to the private markets And we do think that in the investing it's going to be part of that part of that answer And it's a it's different having an index composed of exposure in the individual names Versus creating indices based on you know fun fun fun interest and fun information So I would just kind of add that to Kelly's Okay, very helpful.

Jeffrey Schmitt: Hey Jeff, I would add just a few comments on top of Kelly's Obviously as Kelly referenced the BlackRock acquisition of Prequin MSCI, you know with their they completed their acquisition of Burgess and rolled out 130 I think was number in the C's I mean, those are both as Kelly mentioned in reference Those are both situations where they have fund level information, which we think it's very different from secondary market You know pricing at an individual company level and then you see a lot of articles out about people I mean Larry Fink talked about in the C's you hear discussions around ETFs, you know, there's a closed-end fund out there that You know has been in the press There there is a lot of attention and desire for people to get access to the private markets And we do think that in the investing is going to be part of that part of that answer and it's a it's different having an index composed of exposure in the individual names Versus trading indices based on you know Fun fun fun interest and fun information. So I would just kind of add that to Kelly's Okay, very helpful.

Speaker: Hey, Jeff, I would add just a few comments on top of Kelly's. Obviously, as Kelly referenced, the BlackRock acquisition of Prequin, MSPI, you know, with their and completed their acquisition of Burgess and rolled out 130, I think was number in the seas. I mean, those are both, as Kelly mentioned in reference. Those are both situations where they have fun lowland information, which we think is very different from secondary market, you know, pricing at an individual company level. And then you see a lot of articles out about people. I mean, Larry, think thought about in the seas.

Jeff Smith: That's very helpful. Thank you.

Jeffrey Schmitt: Hey Jeff, I would add just a few comments on top of Kelly's. Obviously, as Kelly referenced, the BlackRock acquisition of Prequin

Jeffrey Schmitt: MSCI, you know, they completed their acquisition of Burgess and rolled out 130, I think, number in the C's. I mean, those are both, as Kelly mentioned in reference, those are both situations where they have fund level information, which we think is very different from secondary market.

Jeffrey Schmitt: you know, pricing at an individual company level.

Jeffrey Schmitt: And then you see a lot of articles out about people, I mean Larry Fink talked about indices, you hear discussions around.

Speaker: You're here discussions around ETFs. You know, there's a closed-end fund out there that, you know, has been in the press.

Jeffrey Schmitt: ETFs, you know, there's a closed-end fund out there that

Speaker: There's a lot of attention and desire for people to get access to the private markets. And we do think that investing is going to be part of that, a part of that answer. And it's different having an index composed of exposure in the individual names versus creating in the seas based on, you know, fun, fun, fun interest and fun information. So I would just kind of add that to Kelly's.

Jeffrey Schmitt: you know, has been in the press. There's a lot of attention and desire for people to get access to the private markets, and we do think that investing...

Jeffrey Schmitt: It's going to be part of that part of that answer and it's a it's different having an index composed of exposure in the individual names

Jeffrey Schmitt: versus creating indices based on, you know, fun interest and fun information. So I would just kind of add that to Kelly's comments.

Speaker: very helpful thank you again if you would like to ask a question press star the number one and your telephone keypad there are no further questions at this time I will now turn the call over back to the presenters for any closing remarks yeah thank you all for dialing in today we will be in New York at the Barquies and UBS financial tech conferences post-labor day do you have any other questions feel free to email ir at portwobl.com otherwise thank you for the time that concludes today's conference call thank you all for joining you may now disconnect I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I know I

Speaker Change: okay very helpful thank you

Operator: Again, if you would like to ask a question, press star, then the number 1 on your telephone keypad. There are no further questions at this time. Now, I'll turn the call over to the presenters for any closing remarks.

Speaker Change: Again, if you would like to ask a question, press star, the number 1 on your telephone keypad.

Speaker Change: There are no further questions at this time.

Operator: Now I'll turn the call over to the presenters for any closing remarks.

Speaker Change: Now turn the call over back to the presenters for any closing remarks.

Dominic Paschel: Yeah, thank you all for dialing in today. We will be in New York at the Barclays and UBS Financial Tech Conferences post-Labor Day. If you have any other questions, feel free to email me at ir@ForbesGlobal.com. Otherwise, thank you for the time. That concludes today's conference.

Kelly Rodriques: Yeah, thank you all for dialing in today. We will be

Dominic Paschel: Yeah. Thank you all for dialing in today.

Dominic Paschel: we will be in new york at the barkwe' and ubs financial tech conferenceces post labor day you have any other questions feel' free to e-mail irr at forort twelve do com otherwise thank you for the time

Dominic Paschel: That concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

Operator: We talked about this in the past qualitatively.

Mark Lee: I think Mark has pointed it out, but we did want to include in the supplemental this time some of the historical correlation that we're seeing.

Mark Lee: So, we're really trying to back it up with a little bit more detailed data, but we've seen a relationship here between IPO activity and late stage investment activity. Got it.

Owen Lau: And then going back to the expansion reduction plan, could you please maybe add more color on how much savings we expect to capture for the second half of this year. I mean, should we expect just half of the 11.3 million dollars this year and in the full 11.3 million dollars in 2025.

Owen Lau: And then will there be any like other we investment so that, you know, the total expense saving would be lower than that any more color would be helpful. Thanks. Yeah, thanks.

Owen Lau: Thanks for the question, Owen. For, you know, as you kind of look at at your models, what I would say, you know, specifically I broke out the 11.3 million, the 11.3 million is against our budget expenses. And we kind of said it's primarily head count related, you know, with some other expenses as well. Now if you look at kind of the saves relative to kind of run rate, I think you can take that 11.3 million and assume that roughly, roughly speaking, two thirds of it is against our current run rate.

Speaker Change: thank you for watching Ok then like and subscribe you're going to make me laugh obviusly

Owen Lau: And one third is kind of cost future cost avoidance. So I think that that's the bulk of it should be achieved, you know, in Q3 and in Q4, but there's probably some straggling, you know, timing related issues, but the vast majority should be released.

Owen Lau: We should should should be should benefit as us in on a go forward basis. We are also very specific to say that excludes severance, Owen and obviously severance would be a one time expense. All right, got it. There was a question.

Owen Lau: There was a question to about any more new investments in there, too.

Owen Lau: Is that right Owen? Yeah, exactly. Like would you, would you, would you invest some of the safe into the business, maybe this year or next year, like schooling this happens?

Mark Lee: The short answer is no. We are fully committed to continuing the investment levels in the next gen platform with this taken into account. So we expect to, as Mark said, realize the full amount in 2025 and still continue to make investments in ongoing margin expansion and efficiency with the people that we've got here now. You know, when I would, as we've said in prior calls, I mean, even though we've had a hiring freeze for the past seven quarters, right, we've worked really hard to try to make sure we're focusing our resources on the top priorities and opportunities.

Mark Lee: You know, and as we've discussed before, even during those seven quarters of hiring freezes, we've been able to kind of initiate our efforts in for Europe, roll out our data product for pro, but our our forage index, you know, our option based lending program. So, you know, even kind of in a constrained cost control environment, obviously, we always seek to prioritize our resources, which, kind of that, the opportunities that have the biggest pay back.

Mark Lee: Yeah, just a reminder to everybody on the call. We did talk last quarter about the rollout of our global order book, the extensible capability for us to now expose forge on a global level. This is as Mark referenced earlier part of how our revenue contribution from Europe has started to emerge. And you know, we are seeing now that relationships in Europe having access to counterparties through that extensible global order book are now starting to drive revenue for the business.

Operator: We'll talk more about that in future quarters.

Operator: Thanks a lot.

Jeffrey Schmitt: Your next question comes from the line of Jeff Smith with William Blair. Please go ahead. Hi, thank you. So, how is your data business doing in this environment with transaction activity up nicely in the quarter? And what are you doing to increase adoption there? I think you've mentioned that last quarter versus kind of focusing on growth, but just curious what you're doing there and how that has been performing. So, I think one of the things that we referenced previously is a focus on data adoption. And we have really employed a strategy this year to get forged data everywhere.

Mark Lee: I think we wanted to keep the focus of our statements today on our performance, our optimism and essentially the cost savings decisions that we've made. I will say this. We are seeing very good uptake on Fort Pro and on the use of forged data and look forward to reporting on some specifics of this in our next earnings call.

Kelly Rodriques: But I'll let Mark reference any of the specifics that we've got. Yeah, the only thing else that I would add, Jeff, is just as a reminder to the entire group. But, you know, we think about, you can think about our data offerings kind of in three buckets.

Kelly Rodriques: Our forged product, hard to get it at institutional trading clients. Our subscription-based forged intelligence product, you know, this hard to get really at clients that are not specifically looking to trade but find the data very helpful, you know, to their business. A good example we've quoted in the past are venture debt, you know, businesses. And then the third, you know, and what, as you know, Jeff, I'm personally really excited about that our whole drive data business.

Kelly Rodriques: And that's, you know, forged price and the forged indices, right? And there's, you know, two indices are forged private market index as well as the investible forged liquidity private market index. So, so, you know, we think about our data business kind of in those three different buckets. And, you know, plug it away and have a lot of optimism for the future opportunity.

Operator: Great.

Jeffrey Schmitt: And then, you know, what does the competitive landscape look like actually for private market indexes?

Jeffrey Schmitt: I mean, is there, is there many out there today, or I guess do you foresee many kind of emerging in the market? And, you know, what do you see is your kind of advantage if they do?

Kelly Rodriques: Yeah, this is a really interesting question because there's been a fair amount of news actually coming out of some larger places. I'm sure everyone has seen the commitment that BlackRock just made in their recent acquisition about the emerging passive strategies and products relating to the private market. We see this as an incredibly powerful sign of what's coming next in the market. We believe part of our excitement around derives and index data is that having funds that are built on on passive strategies and passive opportunities is going to open up this market for a whole set of participants that aren't here now.

Kelly Rodriques: And so we've believed in this strategy for a couple of years. And as we reported previously, we now have our first index, investible index, powered by Ford's private market index. We see more of that coming, but I'd say as it relates to competitive, most of what's out there today that have been cited as indexes aren't using the depth of clean data that Ford has as the market volume leader. We're seeing indexes announced that are using fund marks, which we believe are a less reliable and more stale source of data by which to build a product off from.

Kelly Rodriques: And so we are we're really excited about our position in the market here. As far as competition, this is still a business from a revenue generating standpoint that's pretty small. And there's a number of small players out there that are aggregating data from third-party sources. We believe that we've got a competitive advantage. Given the depth of our global order book, we talked about some of these metrics earlier in the call. And we expected at some point that part of the market is going to consolidate. There are just too many small players out there that raise capital with very little and meaningful revenue to support additional investment. So we're watching and we're continuing to lead from the front.

Kelly Rodriques: But we think this is a really exciting part of our future. And we're considering when and if to start breaking this out and start reporting on some of the KPIs separately. But we'll we'll consider that in the future. For now, we believe 2024 will largely be a year focused on continuing to build the highest source of high quality data in the space and getting our name and brand out there associated with a singular source of truth for pricing. So we're excited about where this is going, but we'll look for the future to start reporting on it.

Mark Lee: Hey, Jeff, I would add just a few comments on top of Kelly's. Obviously, as Kelly referenced, the BlackRock acquisition of Prequin, MSPI, you know, with their and completed their acquisition of Burgess and rolled out 130, I think was number in the seas. I mean, those are both as Kelly mentioned in reference. Those are both situations where they have fun lowland information, which we think is very different from secondary market, you know, pricing at an individual company level.

Mark Lee: And then you see a lot of articles out about people. I mean, Larry, think thought about in the seas. You're here discussions around ETFs. You know, there's a closed-end fund out there that, you know, has been in the press. There's a lot of attention and desire for people to get access to the private markets. And we do think that investing is going to be part of that, a part of that answer. And it's different having an index composed of exposure in the individual names versus creating in the seas based on, you know, fun, fun, fun interest and fun information.

Mark Lee: So I would just kind of add that to Kelly's, on it.

Jeffrey Schmitt: Okay, very helpful. Thank you.

Operator: Again, if you would like to ask a question, press star the number one on your telephone keypad. There are no further questions at this time.

Operator: I will now turn the call over back to the presenters for any closing remarks. Yeah, thank you all for dialing in today. We will be in New York at the Barquies and UBS Financial Tech Conference's post-laborate. If you have any other questions, feel free to email IR at portswaple.com. Otherwise, thank you for the time.

Operator: That concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining.

Operator: You may now disconnect. Thank you all for joining us today, thank you all for joining us[inaudible][inaudible] I love you. I love you. [inaudible] I love you.