The asset management arm of a publicly traded firm has lifted out a team across the pond.

Yana Kramer G Squared Capital LLP Managing Partner

Yesterday Michael Pytosh, head of equities at Voya Investment Management [profile], and Vincent Costa, head of quantitative equity, confirmed that the New York City-based firm has acquired London-based G Squared Capital LLP's technology and hired its founding team. G Squared specializes in using machine intelligence and fundamental investing.

Pricing and terms of the deal were not disclosed. According to Voya team, the deal is "not material to Voya's financial position."

G Squared principals Gabriel Andraos, Yana Kramer, and Gareth Shepherd will join Voya as part of the deal, and they will form Voya IM's new equity machine intelligence (EMI) group. That group will be within the quantitative equities business at Voya IM (which now includes 13 investment professionals managing more than $24 billion in assets), and thus they will report to Costa.

"This transaction supports our focus on building best-in-class equity portfolios that meet our clients' long-term investment needs," Pytosh states. "Further, our new EMI team has the knowledge base and tools to accelerate Voya's efforts to incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in our investment selection process."

Costa lauds the G Squared team as "a great cultural fit" for his unit.

"Their technology, research and development advances our current platform, and brings advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques, increasingly seen as the next frontier for asset managers," Costa states.

Voya IM overall had more than $238 billion in assets as of September 30. 

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