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Financial Services

Nasdaq, Inc.

Exchange turned financial-technology vendor (Adenza, Verafin), with an AI push in fincrime and regtech

NDAQFinancial Services/Capital Markets/Financial Exchanges & Data(40203040)HQ New York, NYResearched Oct 25, 2026Unverified
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Exchange operator (Nasdaq US and Nordic markets) and a fast-growing technology segment, Financial Technology (Verafin anti-fraud, Calypso and AxiomSL from Adenza, market technology), plus Capital Access Platforms (index, data, IR).

Talking points

  • Nasdaq is an ecosystem partner. Implementing Verafin, Calypso and Axiom at banks is joint work.

Likely opportunities

  • Partner-led implementations. Nasdaq's own operations efficiency.

Outreach plans

1 plan for the main opportunities, in outreach wave 3. All budgets, deal sizes and dates are planning estimates made from the public brief, not from client data or Accenture financials. Executive names are used only where the brief also names them; verify roles and names before outreach.

1Partner-led implementationsCost & operationsIdentified$600K–$2M

The Nasdaq brief flags this opportunity: Partner-led implementations. Lead with a fixed-scope 4-week entry offer that proves value quickly, then grow it into co-delivered implementations at shared clients.

From opportunity: Partner-led implementations

Why now
Exchange turned financial-technology vendor (Adenza, Verafin), with an AI push in fincrime and regtech.
Buyers
Head of Partnerships / Alliances · President of the relevant business · Head of Professional Services · CTO
Our sponsor
Accenture Ecosystem / Alliance lead for Financial Services, with an industry MD who owns shared bank or asset-manager clients
Entry
A 4-week joint go-to-market sprint ending in a signed plan: three named shared clients, one co-sold pursuit in the next quarter, and an agreed implementation-partner role.. No CAL account team today. Enter through the sponsor's network, the client itself as the alliance partner and a short point-of-view note to the Head of Partnerships / Alliances.
Proof points
Alliance and co-delivery case studies
Deal size$600K–$2M
Pursuit cost$40K
Win probability15%
Estimate: Estimate. Pursuit cost is about 8 person-weeks of account, sponsor and SME time at a blended $5,000 per person-week, including extra effort to win a first meeting without an account team. The entry offer itself is a fixed fee of roughly $70k, or an Accenture investment if the pursuit is contested. The deal range is the 12-24 month follow-on (co-delivered implementations at shared clients), scaled for a smaller client from a reference range of $3-10M. It is not based on client budget data. Win probability of 15% is a planning assumption for an account without a CAL tier.

Outreach sequence

  1. Week 1List shared clients where both firms are already present and the client's product is being implemented or renewed. Map the buying group (Head of Partnerships / Alliances, President of the relevant business, Head of Professional Services) and known Accenture relationships.Industry MD with an industry SME
  2. Week 2Confirm the sponsor, pick two reference clients, and line up support from the client itself as the alliance partner.Sponsor
  3. Week 3-5Reach the Head of Partnerships / Alliances with a one-page note on partner-led implementations, through a warm introduction or an industry event.Industry MD
  4. Week 6-7Executive meetings with the Head of Partnerships / Alliances and the President of the relevant business: test the hypotheses and offer the entry offer.Sponsor and industry MD
  5. Week 8-9Hold a joint pipeline review with the partnerships team and agree a co-selling motion.Industry and technical SMEs
  6. Week 10Scope and price the entry offer with the client's working team; agree success measures.Pursuit lead
  7. Week 11-12Proposal review with the economic buyer (Head of Partnerships / Alliances) and procurement.Sponsor
  8. Week 13-14Sign the entry offer and mobilize the 4-week team.Delivery lead
  9. Week 18Read out results and propose the follow-on: co-delivered implementations at shared clients.Sponsor and delivery lead

Timeline

Mar 2027Aug 2027
Prepare and engageFirst executive meeting held with the Head of Partnerships / Alliances
ShapeEntry offer scoped with the client's working team
ProposeEntry offer signed
Deliver entry offerResults read out and follow-on proposal submitted
ExpandFollow-on program signed

Success measures

  • Alliance plan signed
  • Three shared-client pursuits opened in two quarters
  • Co-sold bookings (Accenture measure)

Risks

  • The client keeps implementation in its own services arm
  • Co-selling stalls without executive sponsorship on both sides
  • Competition (from the brief): Its products compete with Murex and FIS for regtech and capital markets.

01Strategic priorities

  • Adena Friedman's plan is to be the trusted fintech partner to the financial system, with cross-sell of Adenza and Verafin and AI-powered products (Verafin agentic AI for AML investigations).
  • Tokenized securities trading proposal (2025-26) and 24-hour trading.

02Financial health and spend signals

  • Solutions revenue is about 75%+ of the total, and Financial Technology grows at a double-digit rate. Deleveraging after Adenza.

03Leadership changes

  • Friedman is Chair and CEO. Sarah Youngwood is CFO.

04Regulatory pressure

  • SEC market structure. Tokenized securities approvals.

05M&A and restructuring

  • Adenza (about $10.5B, 2023) and Verafin (2021). Sold its Nordic power trading business.

06Tech stack and vendor footprint

  • AWS strategic partnership (cloud for markets). AI in Verafin and surveillance.

07Competitor engagements

  • Its products compete with Murex and FIS for regtech and capital markets. SIs implement Calypso and AxiomSL.

08Risk disclosures

  • Integration, competition in listings and cyber.

Workforce

No workforce data tracked yet. Add it in briefs/_intel/ndaq.yaml.

Earnings call themes

No call themes tracked yet.

Regulatory actions

No consent orders, MRAs or fines tracked. See Regulatory pressure above for context.

Recent public signals

Sourcing. Bullets without a source link or a ✓ mark come from model knowledge (public information up to mid-2026) and have not been verified. Check them against the latest filings before using them with a client. Recent public signals were found by web search; most were judged from the headline and source, not a full read.