ABOUT US

Our collaborative and client-centric approach is what has led us to become one of the market leaders in the indexing industry since our founding in 2007.

We're fast and flexible without compromising on quality. It is this, along with our fair pricing - enabling our clients to be competitive themselves - that will further deepen the trust between us as we continue to bring innovative disruption to the market.

COMPANY

Challenging the status quo, every day

As a relative newcomer to the indexing industry, we’ve always had to do things differently. Rather than rely on our brand to attract and retain business, we’ve listened to what our clients told us they needed – speed of execution, fair pricing, customization of our products to suit them, flexibility and scalability.

And then we’ve gone out and done exactly that. Every day.

And we’ve kept on listening, adding to our products and range of services along the way. This has helped us grow consistently and we’re now present in Frankfurt, Berlin, Dresden, Toronto, Hong Kong, and Amsterdam.

Wide range of indices

We design, calculate and license financial indices with the highest standards. From broad benchmark indices to highly flexible solutions, we offer the full spectrum of index products to our clients, which include asset managers, investment banks and ETF providers around the world. And we’re able to calculate indices using all available asset classes – there are no limits to what can be part of an index as long as it has a price.

Solutions for ETP Providers

We offer clients real-time calculation in the form of Indicative Net Asset Values (iNAVs) and Indicative Optimized Portfolio Values (IOPVs), and distribute them globally to exchanges. We also provide the service of creating Portfolio Composition Files (PCFs) along with the required factsheets.

OUR PRINCIPLES

We take our cue from our clients when deciding what’s important to us. So it will come as no surprise that security, technical infrastructure and regulatory compliance are high on the list. However, it’s just as important to us to ensure that we truly deliver the products and service that our clients are looking for.

  • Security

    The security of your business is something on which we place a great deal of importance and the foundation of the trust that you have in us. We set ourselves the highest standards for data protection and continuity, and employ a number of industry standard layers of technology to protect and secure data. These include geographically separate primary and secondary data centers, with multiple layers of redundancy, data mirroring and sophisticated failover services, which are complemented by strict physical and logical access controls to the processing platforms.

  • Regulation

    While staying up to date with regulatory developments is important for most businesses, it's imperative in an industry such as ours, where the accuracy, reliability and integrity of benchmarks is key. This is why compliance with the applicable regulations is at the core of our business strategy. We are registered as benchmark administrator under the European Benchmarks Regulation (BMR) with the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and comply with the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks.

  • Proactivity

    When you’re starting out, you need to differentiate yourself from the competition. So we looked around at what our competitors were doing and at what they weren’t doing. We decided to offer our clients what they said they needed, such as speed – time is money after all. Or true partnership – developing products together with them that matter to them. We believe it is this attitude and work ethic that have got us to where we are today, and will continue to make both ourselves and our clients successful in the future.

LOCATIONS

Currently present in the following locations, our ambition is to continue to expand our footprint in order to better serve our clients around the world.

  • Frankfurt am Main

    Frankfurt am Main

    Frankfurt is our headquarters and the majority of our management team is located there. Core and support functions all operate out of Frankfurt.

  • Berlin

    Berlin

    Our software development and core technology teams can be found in Berlin. They're responsible for the infrastructure, development, operation and maintenance of our index calculation and publication engine.

  • Dresden

    Dresden

    Dresden is the site of our data research and development center of expertise. It’s where our experts in data intelligence, machine learning, data mining and artificial intelligence work on integrating these cutting-edge technologies in order to innovate and deliver even better results for our clients.

  • Toronto

    Toronto

    The North American continent is an important market for us, and in order to better cater to our clients' needs there, including being in the same time zone as them, we opened a sales and operations office in Toronto.

  • Hong Kong

    Hong Kong

    Our operations office in Hong Kong is fully integrated in our administration processes and complementing our different time zones coverage. Furthermore, it is positioning our service offering in the Asia-Pacific region and providing our clients with administrative support.

  • Amsterdam

    Amsterdam

    In 2021, Solactive acquired Global Property Research B.V. (GPR). GPR is a Dutch Index Provider focused on providing exposure to various segments of the global real estate market. This acquisition allowed Solactive to lever and integrate GPRs knowledge and expertise around real estate and infrastructure data points, broadening Solactive’s product offerings and index development capabilities.

     

HISTORY

Take a look at the moments that have made us who we are.

An inauspicious start

Solactive, or Structured Solutions as it was then known, was founded in 2007, just before the global financial crisis hit. Not the best time to launch a business, but founder Steffen Scheuble managed to persuade three others to join him in a management buyout, and Solactive was up, if not yet running.

Character building

The first few years were tough, but they shaped who we have become. We knew then, and still firmly believe, that the only way we were going to be successful was by being open and transparent, believing in what we were doing and by being a reliable business partner, nurturing close relationships with our clients.

Our first US client

A significant boost came when we formed a relationship with a now well-known ETF provider – back then another start up based in the US. They soon became our first client in the US, launching ETFs linked to Solactive indices.

Our own platform

The next major milestone was the acquisition of the S-Box index platform from the Stuttgart Stock Exchange.

Focusing on technology

This gave rise to the need to build a new independent IT infrastructure, and thanks to the right IT partner, on May 13th 2011 (a Friday!) after many stressful months we switched over to our new index calculation platform.

A new name

This was also the time we re-branded from Structured Solutions to Solactive, due to a dispute with another index provider. Even though it meant we had to re-brand, it was encouraging as it meant we were being taken seriously by the competition.

Growth

The next few years were still hard going, but we began to grow. As we grew, more and more people started to take notice and trust in us, giving us more and more business. This required hiring more people, and by 2014 we’d outgrown our office space and needed new premises. In 2015 we started to build up all of the support functions such as HR, Legal, Accounting and so on, which up until then had been somewhat neglected in the mayhem of building the business. This of course required more people and we soon needed to rent an additional floor.

Going international

In 2017 we continued our expansion, but this time overseas, opening our Toronto office in order to better service our North American clients.

Acquisition of our IT partner

The reliability and continuous development of our index calculation platform is essential for our business. Integrating the technology activities more closely will allow us to work even more effectively on refining our IT backend and evolving for the future. With this in mind, we proceeded with the acquisition of our former IT partner in Berlin, laying the foundation for further growth.

Moving to Asia

Due to the high demand for index and ETF services solutions in the Asia-Pacific region, we decided to expand our business and strengthen our local presence in Asia by opening a sales and operations office in Hong Kong.

Strategic Investment in Minerva Analytics

Quality governance and sustainability data, research and analytics as well as voting technology and services solutions are areas of increasing importance to all asset owners and asset managers. Hence, it was only logical that Solactive took a strategic stake in the UK-based European governance and proxy voting firm in May 2019.

The partnership not only significantly amplifies Minerva’s global presence, but it also helps Solactive to provide more quality choices in the ESG market.

BMR Registration

Published in the EU Benchmark Register on 9 April 2019, Solactive achieved registration as benchmark administrator under the European Benchmarks Regulation (BMR) with the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) well before the end of the transitional period of 1 January 2020. The registration underlines Solactive’s commitment to high standards in the benchmark administration in order to foster the quality, reliability and integrity of its benchmarks.

Expanding Engagement in ESG Data Providers

In February 2020, Solactive placed a strategic investment into the Frankfurt-based scientific climate data start-up ‘right. based on science’, thus expanding its engagement in the space of innovative ESG data providers. First indices, utilizing right.’s data, are currently under development. right.’s X-Degree Compatibility (XDC) Model calculates the contribution of an economic entity to climate change until 2050 under various scenarios. Results are expressed as a tangible °C value. F

Acquisition of Minority Stake in Green Financial Technology Platform Spark Change

Solactive’s engagement in ESG Data Providers continued by the acquisition of a minority stake in green financial technology platform Spark Change. Spark Change aims to broaden access to the previously hard-to-reach carbon emissions market by providing exposure to the value of physical carbon emissions allowances through green financial products.

Solactive Announces 50 Million EUR Growth Equity Investment from Summit Partners

2021 kicked off with a 50 Million EUR growth equity investment, which Solactive received from Summit Partners. The investment will help support Solactive’s continued global growth as the company expands its product offering and presence worldwide and further builds upon its proprietary technology platform, infrastructure, and global team.

The future

With more than 250 talented people representing over 46 nationalities now working at Solactive, we’ve become an established player in the market. What we have not become is part of “the establishment”, because we’ll continue to shake things up and challenge the status quo.

MANAGEMENT TEAM

As we have grown, so has our leadership team. Each brings extensive industry experience with them and a passion for building a company that does things differently.