Global investment firm KKR is investing $220 million in Dubai-headquartered analytics company Premialab as part of the private equity major’s push into the Gulf region, according to an announcement.
The growth investment will be led by funds and accounts managed by KKR alongside existing investor Balderton Capital, the companies said. The valuation and size of the stake were not disclosed.
KKR said the investment will be made primarily through its Next Generation Technology Growth Fund III, a $1.16 billion technology growth vehicle, and marks the platform’s first deal in the Gulf region.
Founded in 2016 by Adrien Geliot and Pierre Trecourt, Premialab sells analytics that help institutional clients compare, backtest, and monitor so-called quantitative investment strategies (QIS), systematic, index-like strategies typically packaged by investment banks.
Headquartered in Dubai, Premialab has a presence in New York, London, Paris, Hong Kong, and Sydney.
The firm said it enables customers to make optimal investment and risk management decisions by accessing and benchmarking QIS strategies, analysing their performance, and providing a suite of related risk analytics.
“Quantitative investment strategies have grown rapidly in scale and importance, yet the market has lacked a truly independent standard for data, analytics, and risk,” said Premialab CEO Adrien Geliot.
Per the announcement, the new funding will support international expansion and product development, including an execution offering developed with derivatives exchange Eurex, which aims to broaden access to QIS via listed instruments.
The firm estimates the market for QIS products manages about $800 billion and has been growing as investors look for rules-based exposure across asset classes.
“QIS strategies are rapidly being adopted across customer segments, and Premialab has established itself as the category-defining data and analytics platform that is uniquely enabling this ecosystem,” said Elliot Bell, principal at KKR.
The investment comes KKR secured $3 billion in commitments for its third pan-Asia infrastructure fund as of Q3 2025, the firm said in its earnings call with analysts in November.
Asia Pacific Infrastructure Investors III, which is reportedly targeting over $9 billion, has received $40 million in commitments from the Employees Retirement System of Texas, DealStreetAsia reported in September.
