Louisville just became the third largest office for Equifax on a global scale.
Earlier this month, the consumer reporting and credit agency completed its acquisition of Appriss Insights, a business unit of Louisville-based Appriss Inc., in a deal valued at more than $1.8 billion. Appriss Insights is now a part of Equifax's (NYSE: EFX) Workforce Solutions subsidiary.
Brian Matthews, former president of Appriss Insights, is now senior vice president and general manager of the Louisville-based division of Equifax Workforce Solutions. He told me Equifax, which employs 13,000 people globally, sees significant potential in Louisville and its 300 employees transitioning from Appriss Insights.
"Equifax sees Louisville as an important hub to continue to invest in and build out with human capital as we continue to grow the business," he said. "We're excited — we think it's a great home for the business, it's a great home for employees and we're optimistic that it creates not only career opportunities for existing employees, but additional opportunities with the company in Louisville and beyond."
Matthews joined Appriss Insights — then called Appriss Safety — as a senior vice president in 2017 to help define a growth strategy for the business. At the time, the company was bringing in about $50 million in revenue, which has grown to $150 million in revenue in 2021.
"In 2018, soon after I joined, we expanded our aperture of what we focused on beyond helping victims," Matthews said, referencing VINE, the company's victim notification network. "We began taking the data exhaust that we captured over time and really started looking at opportunities to solve other complex societal challenges with that data."
The company now provides data used in public and workplace safety, law enforcement, corporate investigations, fraud detection and prevention and health care sanctioning and credentialing. Appriss Insights has made five acquisitions since 2018, accelerating that aforementioned growth in Louisville and other geographic locations.
As a part of Equifax Workforce Solutions, Matthews said the business will still be housed in the Appriss headquarters building on Linn Station Road, which underwent a $6 million renovation in 2018. It offers the company room to grow in the future as it is expected to be a major hub for Equifax.
Matthews said Appriss Insights' "knowledge for good" focus was strategically aligned with Equifax, which aims to leverage data to help people live their best financial lives.
"We both view the use of data as a way to improve society and improve individual lives," he said. "Beyond that, I think we saw a really nice fit from a cultural perspective on how we think of our support in the communities we work in. Day one, Equifax made a very meaningful contribution to the Mary Byron Project (which seeks to end intimate partner violence) and that's something we're committed to supporting.
"Also the fact that often times, in an acquisition, it really can be looked at through the lens of cost synergies and actually reducing heads. What was very appealing was that Equifax really saw Insights and what we did as an opportunity to invest for growth."
Notably, the Appriss Insights acquisition is one of the larger deals Louisville has seen in recent years, at least of those that released financial details.
As Business First previously reported, Humana closed on its acquisition of Kindred At Home in August in a buyout valued at $4.1 billion. Earlier this year, BrightSpring Health Services, which recently filed for an initial public offering, bought Adobe Healthcare for $775 million.
