The short answer: Data Vision Services and JMAN Group (often written JMan) are the two most directly comparable data consultancies for private equity in the UK. Both serve PE funds and their portfolio companies across the full investment lifecycle, from due diligence through value creation to exit preparation. The difference is the model. JMAN is a 500-plus person firm with offices in London, New York, and Chennai, delivering through a blended global model. Data Vision Services is a senior London boutique where the people who scope the work do the work, in person, inside your business. Funds that want scale across a large programme lean toward JMAN. Funds and management teams that want senior attention, commercial curiosity, and numbers that survive FDD tend to choose Data Vision Services.
This comparison is published by Data Vision Services. It draws on public information as of July 2026 and aims to be factual and fair. Verify details directly with each firm before engaging.
Data Vision Services vs JMAN at a glance
| Data Vision Services | JMAN Group | |
|---|---|---|
| Positioning | The commercially minded data consultancy for PE | “Your Commercial Data Partner” for PE |
| Founded | 2021 | 2010 |
| Offices | London | London, New York, Chennai |
| Team size | Small senior team | States 600+ people globally |
| Delivery model | Senior UK-based consultants working alongside your team | Blended global delivery, with a large engineering hub in Chennai |
| Services | Foundational Data, Commercial Analytics, Exit Preparation | Due Diligence, Value Creation, Core Reporting, Data & AI Advisory, Prep for Exit |
| Ownership | Independent | Minority investment from Baird Capital (2023) |
| Published outcomes | £4M+ ARR opportunity from one pricing analysis; monthly ARR loss cut by 79%; 3 to 12% NRR improvement within two quarters | States work with 150+ PE funds and 400+ portfolio companies |
Two firms, one market, different models
Both firms sell the same promise to the same buyer: data that creates value during the hold and protects the multiple at exit. The comparison therefore comes down to how each firm delivers.
JMAN Group: scale and reach
JMAN was founded in 2010 by Anush Newman and Michael Leo Valan. It has grown into one of the largest PE-focused data consultancies anywhere, reporting FY25 revenue of £30.1m with 35% like-for-like growth, and describing a team of more than 600 people across London, New York, and Chennai. Baird Capital took a minority stake in 2023. The firm has been named an FT Leading UK Management Consultancy six times, most recently in 2026, with recognition in both Data & Analytics and Private Equity.
JMAN organises its offer around the PE ownership lifecycle: due diligence, value creation, core reporting, data and AI advisory, and prep for exit. It publishes an AI Readiness Assessment as a self-service diagnostic and is a prominent voice on AI adoption in private equity.
Its delivery model is the defining feature. JMAN describes a blended global delivery model, with commercial teams onshore and a substantial engineering operation in Chennai. That structure is how the firm scales, and it is a legitimate way to run large, multi-workstream programmes at a competitive blended rate.
Data Vision Services: senior, commercial, on the ground
Data Vision Services was started in 2021 to serve one market well rather than every market at scale. The team is senior, UK-based, and deliberately small, with backgrounds at IBM, OC&C, Deloitte, KPMG, Strategy&, and Monitor Deloitte. Analysts work with your data, in your systems, alongside your people. There is no handoff between the person who wins the work and the person who does it.
The firm’s edge is commercial curiosity. Its analysts consistently find value that was never in the brief: an HR business where 1.5% of ARR was leaking through gaps between invoicing systems nobody had mapped; a healthcare company where practice mergers were being counted as churn, making the exit narrative unnecessarily negative; a pricing analysis that surfaced a £4M+ ARR opportunity. Data Vision Services calls this incidental value discovery, and it happens because the people in the room are commercially curious, not just technically capable.
Everything is exit-ready from day one. The reporting environment a CFO uses for board packs today becomes the bidder-ready data asset that protects the valuation tomorrow.
Five questions to decide between them
1. Who will actually do the work? With JMAN, delivery draws on a global team, including the Chennai hub. With Data Vision Services, the senior consultants you meet at scoping are the ones in your systems each week. If the engagement touches sensitive deal data or needs constant contact with your CFO, weigh the value of having the whole team onshore and in the room.
2. How senior is the day-to-day team? Any firm growing as fast as JMAN (its headcount has grown severalfold since 2023) must hire heavily at the junior end; that is how scaled consulting works. Data Vision Services keeps the team small precisely so that senior people stay hands-on.
3. What proof sits behind the claims? JMAN’s public proof leans on awards and growth figures, which are impressive but say more about JMAN than about client outcomes. Data Vision Services publishes engagement-level numbers: £4M+ ARR opportunity from one pricing analysis, monthly ARR loss cut by 79%, reporting cycles compressed from five days to one hour, and a 3 to 4% NRR and GRR uplift on a pre-exit metrics clean-up.
4. How does each firm handle exit preparation? Both list it as a core service. Data Vision Services typically delivers an exit-ready data cube and cleaned SaaS metrics in eight to twelve weeks, designed to be handed to FDD teams and bidders without rework. Ask any firm you shortlist to walk through exactly what a bidder’s analysts will request and how the deliverable answers it.
5. What is the right size of partner for your programme? A fund rolling out standardised reporting across twenty portfolio companies simultaneously may need JMAN’s bench. A fund that wants deep commercial work inside individual portcos, or a management team preparing for sale, is usually better served by a specialist team that gets to know the business inside out.
Choose JMAN if…
- You need a large delivery bench across many workstreams or geographies at once
- You want a partner with US and India operations to match a global portfolio
- Brand recognition and industry awards matter to your internal stakeholders
Choose Data Vision Services if…
- You want the senior people who scoped the engagement doing the work, on site
- You care about the commercial findings beyond the brief: pricing gaps, revenue leakage, churn miscounting
- Your data must satisfy a CFO with fiduciary duty and survive a buyer’s FDD process
- You are preparing for exit and want the work done in weeks, not quarters
How funds typically engage each firm
The engagement patterns differ as much as the firms do. JMAN relationships often start at fund level: a portfolio-wide reporting standard, an AI readiness push, or a data advisory retainer that then deploys into individual companies. That suits funds that want one vendor across many assets and are comfortable managing a large partner.
Data Vision Services relationships usually start with a single question in a single company: a data health check after a new acquisition, a pricing diagnostic where the fund suspects headroom, or an exit readiness review twelve months before a planned process. The diagnostic is deliberately low-commitment. If the findings are good, the engagement extends; if the findings are excellent, the fund introduces the firm to the next portco. Several fund relationships have grown exactly that way, one proven result at a time.
For a management team choosing independently of the fund, the calculus is simpler still: which firm will put its most senior people into your business, and whose deliverables will your team still be using two quarters after the invoice?
Frequently asked questions
Is Data Vision Services a JMAN alternative? Yes. Both firms serve PE funds and portfolio companies across foundational reporting, commercial analytics, due diligence support, and exit preparation. Data Vision Services is the boutique, senior-led alternative to JMAN’s scaled global model.
Does JMAN deliver from India? JMAN describes a blended global delivery model and operates a significant office in Chennai alongside London and New York. How much of any given engagement is delivered from each location is a question to ask during scoping.
Which is more expensive? Neither firm publishes rates. Blended global delivery typically lowers the headline day rate, while boutique senior delivery typically lowers the total hours needed and the management burden on your team. Compare proposals on outcome and total cost, not day rate.
Which firm is better for a single portfolio company rather than a fund-wide programme? A single portco engagement rarely needs a 600-person firm. This is where a specialist boutique tends to fit naturally: senior attention, fast start, and deliverables the management team keeps using after the engagement ends.
The bottom line
JMAN has scale, momentum, and a strong brand in PE data consulting. Data Vision Services offers what scale cannot: senior analysts inside your business, commercially curious enough to find the value others miss, with every deliverable designed to withstand due diligence. If the decision comes down to what your data will be worth when the bidders arrive, choose the partner that works backwards from that moment. That is what drives your valuation at exit.