What Rivel Research Group does

Rivel Research Group is a privately held, specialized advisory firm founded in 1991 by Art Rivel to gather, analyze, and interpret investment community feedback for publicly traded companies. The firm pioneered the investor perception research category in the 1970s and today operates a portfolio of six interconnected product lines: TrendLign (live investor perception studies built on a proprietary normative database of 1,600+ studies with rolling five-year trend comparability); GuideLign (an IR best-practices community of 700+ IRO members with 2,500+ published reports); StoryLign (investor communications, investor day preparation, and proprietary slide-design methodology); Governance and Sustainability (ESG strategy, CSRD/SEC/TCFD regulatory advisory, board evaluations, and the Corporate Governance Intelligence Council); Creative Studio (in-house design and copywriting recognized by LACP and GDUSA); and Rivel Banking Research (primary market research for U.S. banks and credit unions, running 220,000+ consumer and business interviews annually).

The firm's underlying technology stack is a human-expert methodology rather than a software platform: live (not online) investor interviews, complete respondent anonymity, deep qualitative triangulation, quantitative benchmarking, and proprietary five-year rolling data — supplemented by a Workiva integration for sustainability reporting and investor communications. No public API, SDK, or AI/ML capabilities are disclosed.

Rivel earns revenue primarily through project-based professional services engagements (investor perception studies, governance and ESG consulting, investor day and communications engagements) and subscription/membership revenue through the GuideLign Intelligence Council and Rivel Banking Research programs. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. The go-to-market is consultative enterprise field sales targeted at IROs, CFOs, CEOs, corporate secretaries, governance leaders, and board members. Stated client penetration includes 68% of the S&P 100, 59% of the S&P 500, 20% of the FTSE 100, and 32% of the CAC 40, alongside 700+ global clients across investor relations, governance, and banking research. Operations span Westport, Connecticut (headquarters) and London (regional headquarters for UK, Continental Europe and Asia), with stated presence on six continents and approximately 22% of clients based outside the U.S. Revenue, ownership structure, and external funding are not publicly disclosed; the company is closely held under founder-family leadership with Brian Rivel as Chairman and CEO and Gene Rubin as President.

Name

Rivel Research Group

Legal name

Rivel, Inc.

Website

https://rivel.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1991

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Rivel Research Group is a privately held investor relations advisory firm, founded in 1991 by Art Rivel, that delivers investor perception studies, IR best-practices community membership, investor communications, ESG/governance consulting, and banking market research to publicly traded companies and financial institutions globally, including a majority of S&P 500 issuers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Investor Relations Advisory

NAICS

Portfolio Management and Investment Advice (523940), Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910)

SIC

Investment Advice (6282), Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)

akta.pro primary industry

Strategy & Thematic Research (FSACAGAG)

akta.pro secondary industry

Industry & Sector Research (Syndicated/Custom) (BPAHALAE)

Keywords

• Investor perception research
• Investor relations advisory
• Governance and ESG consulting
• Banking market research
• Corporate communications design

Headquarters

HQ city

Westport

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Investor Relations Advisory Services: Perception studies (TrendLign), investor communications (StoryLign), IR best practices advisory (GuideLign), and strategic consulting for investor relations professionals. Services include live investor interviews, benchmarking, executive coaching, and presentation design. Revenue generated through project-based fees and potentially annual retainer arrangements.
2. Governance and Sustainability Consulting: Full-service sustainability consulting, ESG support, board evaluations, regulatory compliance guidance (CSRD, SEC disclosures, TCFD), and sustainability reporting. Includes Corporate Governance Intelligence Council membership and advisory services.
3. Banking Research Services: Primary research services for banks and credit unions including The Prospect Report, The Customer Report, brand tracking, focus groups, and custom research solutions. Conducting 220,000+ consumer and business interviews annually.
4. Design and Copywriting Services: In-house creative studio providing investor presentations, sustainability reports, and custom creative support. Award-winning team recognized by LACP and GDUSA.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Rivel Research Group is a specialized advisory firm that conducts proprietary investor perception studies (TrendLign), provides investor relations best practices and peer advisory through a 700+ member community (GuideLign), designs investor communications and supports investor days (StoryLign), and delivers governance, ESG, and banking market research services. The firm primarily serves publicly traded corporations and financial institutions, leveraging a normative benchmarking database built from 1,600+ studies since the 1970s.

Product overview

Rivel is a data-driven advisory firm offering a portfolio of interconnected research and consulting products. The core offerings include TrendLign (investor perception studies), GuideLign (IR best practices and advisory), StoryLign (investor communications), Governance and Sustainability (ESG consulting), Creative Studio (design and copywriting), and Rivel Banking Research (market research for financial institutions). These products work together to provide companies with actionable insights for investor relations, governance, and strategic communications.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• TrendLign Investor Perception Studies

Quantifiable outcome

• 84% of investors say management credibility matters most in perception studies
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers14 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• WorkivacoreTechnology or IntegrationRivel is a Workiva Partner with award-winning team trained and experienced in producing best-in-class communications through the Workiva platform. Partnership enables seamless sustainability reporting and investor communications for clients using the Workiva ecosystem.
• Citadel SecuritiesminorGTM or Marketing PartnerCo-hosted social events with Rivel including F-1 Arcade Boston party and shuffle social at NIRI conferences. Partnership serves networking purposes within IR community.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Brookline Public Relations: Brookline is an IR-focused public relations and strategic communications firm serving publicly traded companies; it is a smaller-scale direct peer of Rivel on the IR communications and investor messaging side, often competing for mid-cap engagements.
• Morrow Sodali: Morrow Sodali is a global consulting firm offering corporate governance, shareholder services, proxy solicitation, and strategic IR advisory to publicly traded companies — directly comparable to Rivel's GuideLign IR advisory and Governance & Sustainability practices and serving overlapping Fortune 500 / FTSE client rosters.
• Georgeson: Georgeson provides shareholder engagement, proxy solicitation, and corporate governance advisory to public companies — a direct peer to Rivel's IR and governance practices, and notably the former employer of Rivel's Governance & Sustainability founder Dave Bobker, indicating direct talent and capability overlap.
• ICR: ICR is a strategic communications and advisory firm with dedicated investor relations, capital markets, and ESG advisory services — competing head-to-head with Rivel's TrendLign and StoryLign offerings for mid-cap and large-cap public company IR budgets.
• Cornerstone Advisors: Cornerstone Advisors provides research, performance benchmarking, and strategic consulting to U.S. banks and credit unions — directly comparable to Rivel Banking Research's market research, prospect studies, and customer benchmarking offerings.

Broad incumbents

• FTI Consulting: FTI's Strategic Communications segment provides IR advisory, perception studies, investor targeting, and crisis communications for public companies — a broader incumbent offering overlapping capability with Rivel's full platform but at much larger scale and across a wider service portfolio.
• Notified: Notified (formerly PR Newswire/GlobeNewswire) provides IR communications, regulatory disclosure, and earnings distribution software to public companies; it overlaps with Rivel's StoryLign and Creative Studio on the communications/deliverable side though it is primarily a tech-platform incumbent rather than bespoke advisor.

Emerging players

• Q4 Inc. Q4 provides IR software, workflow tools, and increasingly perception analytics for public-company IR teams; it represents an emerging technology-led model that competes with Rivel on the data-and-research layer of the IR stack, though it lacks Rivel's bespoke live-interview methodology.

Others

• Pearl Meyer: Pearl Meyer is an executive compensation and corporate governance consulting firm serving public-company boards and compensation committees; it is an adjacent peer in the governance advisory space where Rivel's Governance & Sustainability practice operates.
• AlphaSights: AlphaSights connects investment professionals with industry experts for primary research and insights — adjacent to Rivel's perception study and advisory business in serving the investor community with primary qualitative intelligence, though operating on a marketplace/expert-network model rather than bespoke research.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/RivelResearch
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/rivel-inc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles29 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Rivel Research Group