Demystifying data monetisation: Insights for private equity portfolio companies
Data turns into value when a portfolio company knows what it holds and how to use it: my Chief Wine Officer talk for private equity.
Last night, I had the pleasure of returning to the Chief Wine Officer event series on behalf of AWS, this time addressing leaders from private equity portfolio companies on a topic close to my heart: turning organisational data into strategic value. The evening, hosted at Spring at Somerset House, brought together executives eager to explore how to accelerate value creation through data monetisationGlossaryData monetisationTurning an organisation’s data assets into strategic and financial value, whether through direct revenue streams, operational improvement or competitive positioning that can raise exit multiples. within PE timeframes.
The “Money for Old Rope” Story
I opened my talk with a story from 1998 that particularly resonates with PE portfolio companies today. Fresh into a role at a newly acquired newspaper group in Leeds, following a private equity-backed management buyout of United News & Media’s regional titles, I discovered 271 years of content from 110 newspaper titles, with the oldest being the Leeds Intelligencer dating back to 1754. While some saw legacy burden, I saw untapped digital assets. Over the next four years, we transformed centuries of newsprint into structured, searchable content that we could syndicate to platforms like EBSCO and Factiva. I called it “Money for Old RopeGlossaryMoney for Old RopeTransforming forgotten or seemingly worthless legacy assets into new revenue streams, a phrase coined during a 1998 newspaper archive digitisation project and applied since to data and AI opportunity.Money for Old Rope is a concept I first introduced in “Introducing the AI Stages of Adoption: A framework for understanding AI readiness in your business”.View article →” - turning forgotten historical content and seemingly worthless print assets into new digital revenue streams.
What strikes me today is how this same opportunity exists in every company, but at a vastly different scale. Modern enterprises generate more data in a day than our newspapers produced in a century. The tools, technology, and opportunities have evolved dramatically, but the core principle remains, every business sits on potential data assets that, with the right vision and execution, can be transformed into strategic value.
This is particularly important in the private equity context. According to McKinseymckinsey.comFueling growth through data monetizationResearch finding high performers three times more likely to earn over 20% of revenue from data monetisation.Published Open link , high-performing companies “are three times more likely than others to say their monetisation efforts contribute more than 20 percent to company revenues.” In high-multiple industries, this revenue boost from data monetisation can dramatically amplify exit valuations at the end of the PE cycle.
Speed Trumps Perfection in PE Timeframes
One of my key messages last night addressed the danger of waiting for perfect conditions - particularly crucial within PE investment horizons. In my newspaper digitisation project, we recognised that waiting for perfect OCR and complete metadata would cost us more in lost opportunity than moving forward with ‘good enough’ quality. This lesson is even more crucial in PE portfolio companies, where time to value is critical.
From my experience with AWS’s private equity customers, I emphasised that portfolio companies need to:
- Start with the data they have - perfection is the enemy of value creation
- Move quickly with focused pilots to prove value within quarters, not years
- Build sophistication based on measured outcomes, not assumptions
Beyond IT: Value Creation for PE Portfolios
A crucial shift I’m seeing in successful portfolio companies is moving away from treating data initiatives as IT projects. Instead, they’re approaching them as value creation opportunities that can significantly impact exit multiples. I outlined three categories of immediate value:
- Direct monetisation opportunities (like our newspaper syndication example)
- Operational enhancement that improves EBITDA
- Market positioning and competitive advantage that can drive higher exit valuations
The Unified Platform Experience Approach
For portfolio companies concerned about legacy systems and technical debtGlossaryTechnical debtThe future rework cost created by expedient rather than sound engineering choices; AI-generated code without adequate verification compounds it, with GitClear finding an eightfold increase in duplicated code blocks., I introduced the concept of the Unified Platform Experience versus Full Platform Integration. This approach allows companies to:
- Achieve quick wins through an abstraction layer
- Maintain functioning systems while adding value
- Accelerate time to value without massive system overhauls
- Work around the traditional blockers to change
Building a Path Forward
For PE portfolio company leaders looking to take immediate action, I recommended three steps:
- Identify one “Money for Old Rope” opportunity in their business (try out my Money for Old Rope Machine (MORM))
- Launch a focused pilot within 30 days
- Measure outcomes in business value and EBITDA impact, not technical perfection
For longer-term success, I advocated for creating ’tiger teams’ that can catalyse innovation across portfolio companies, combining expertise in:
- Innovation leadership
- Business domain knowledge
- Data science
- Data visualisation
- Project management
The Wine Factor
As always at Chief Wine Officer events, the evening was enhanced by excellent wine selections that helped foster open discussions about the challenges and opportunities specific to PE portfolio companies. The format proved particularly effective for sharing experiences about rapid value creation through data monetisation.
Looking Ahead
The evening’s discussions reinforced my belief that we’re at a critical juncture in how PE portfolio companies view and value their data assets. The question isn’t whether your portfolio company has valuable data assets - it’s how quickly you can turn them into strategic value that impacts exit multiples.
As I concluded the evening, I encouraged every executive to look at their organisation’s data assets with fresh eyes. In PE timeframes, the opportunity cost of inaction has never been higher, but neither has the potential for value creation.
