FiscalNote, a political- and regulatory risk-focused data provider, has acquired FactSquared, an audio transcription analysis firm.

The announcement comes on the heels of news that FiscalNote raised USD 160m from investors in December to expand internationally, acquire more companies and develop its core products and services. In August, the firm launched FiscalNote Markets, which offers legislative, regulatory and political analysis to the investment community, after its acquisition of Sandhill Strategy LLC.

The partnership will allow FactSquared to expand the impact and reach of its current technology, and to build new products and services alongside the FiscalNote team, according to FactSquared founder and CEO, Bill Frischling.

As part of the deal, Frischling will join FiscalNote’s research and development team. His co-founder, Mark Walsh, will become an advisor to FiscalNote.

Last year, investors largely placed a greater focus on the legislative and regulatory datasets that could help them track the impact of the incoming Biden administration than they did on event-driven election forecasting data. FiscalNote emerged as a top vendor in this space, as it aggregates legislative and regulatory information — predominately within the US — to deliver predictive analytics on government action at the state and federal level.

FactSquared was founded to analyse the audio files of politicians and policy makers, and only later was contracted to transcribe and analyse earnings calls, according to Neudata research.

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