LONDON/NEW YORK, 10th March 2025:  Collingwood, the leading growth, value creation, and M&A advisory, has advised RTO Insider, a trusted provider of in-depth energy market reporting, on its sale to Yes Energy, a market leader in power sector data and analytics.

Founded in 2013 by Rich Heidorn Jr. and his late wife Merry Eisner, RTO Insider is the leading provider of intelligence on regulation and policy-making within the North American power markets. Yes Energy is widely recognised for delivering best-in-class power market data and analytics. The addition of RTO Insider’s expertise in policy and market reporting will further enrich its offering, providing clients with a more comprehensive view of the energy landscape.

Collingwood has partnered closely with RTO Insider and its founders since 2021, initially supporting on its value creation journey to build a customer-led strategy that accelerated the growth of enterprise subscription revenues and established an expert senior management team, resulting in a three fold increase in annual recurring revenue (ARR) in this period. Following a successful period of growth, Collingwood then led a bespoke transaction that involved engaging priority buyers early, managing a highly competitive process, and successfully concluding the transaction within a defined exclusivity period—ultimately securing the best possible outcome for the sellers.

Rich Heidorn Jr., Editor in Chief and Publisher of RTO Insider commented:

“When Merry and I began working with Collingwood, we had been in business for eight years and we were growing rapidly, but not as rapidly as we thought we could. We had a feeling that we didn’t know what we didn’t know. Collingwood’s advisers served as our board of directors, helping us become more strategic in our sales and to develop a succession plan that enabled us to work on the business instead of in the business. They also became dear friends.

Our excellent scale-up experience was mirrored when we began working with Collingwood’s corporate finance team in early 2024 to position us for our eventual sale. They helped us find a perfect acquirer in Yes Energy, navigate due diligence and realize an excellent valuation. I couldn’t recommend them more highly. They’ve helped us set the stage for an exciting next chapter in the RTO Insider story with Yes Energy.”

Connor Agnew, MD, Head of Corporate, Finance at Collingwood added:

“This is a truly fabulous deal for all involved. Building on the legacy that Rich built with Merry around the dining table back in 2013, the sale to Yes Energy represents the next chapter in RTO’s journey. In Yes Energy, Rich, Ken (Sands, Senior VP) and Adam (Schaffer, Senior VP & Head of Business) have an exceptional partner to further serve RTO’s customers, enhancing its solution through data and analysis. And in RTO, Yes Energy has acquired unrivalled power market expertise unlocking greater value and insight adding additional context to inform its data offering.”

Tim Wakefield, Practice Lead, B2B Information at Collingwood commented:

“This is a landmark deal, not only for Rich, the team, and the market, but for Collingwood as well. It further underlines our B2B Information sector expertise, and our focus on high quality BI subscription business models. The sale of RTO Insider to Yes Energy, emboldens our confidence in our US growth strategy, having opened an office in New York last year. RTO Insider is the quintessential Collingwood client and we are proud to have partnered with them since 2021 on one of the most successful value creation journeys we’ve delivered to date.”

 

 

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