Equiteq is pleased to announce that it acted as exclusive financial advisor to Stride, an AI-powered software engineering firm, on its sale to Accordion, an AI and data-powered financial consulting firm focused on private equity, and backed by Charlesbank Capital Partners and Motive Partners. The combination brings Stride’s team of around 50 Forward Deployed Engineers (FDEs) together with Accordion’s finance and operations expertise to take AI from pilot to production across private equity portfolios. Stride Founder and Chairwoman Debbie Madden joins Accordion as Managing Director and AI GTM Leader, and Stride CEO Francisco Martin joins as Managing Director and AI Product and Engineering Leader.
Headquartered in New York, Stride designs, builds, and ships production-grade agentic systems and custom software for enterprise clients in healthcare, financial services, and other regulated industries. The firm is built around senior engineers embedded inside client teams, helping clients move AI systems into daily production use. Stride’s presence in Latin America also extends Accordion’s global delivery model, alongside its existing teams across North America, Europe, and India.
Accordion is the CFO’s partner in value creation. Built for the modern finance function, the firm brings together deep CFO domain expertise, technology, and AI and data capabilities. With roots in private equity, Accordion works with clients across core accounting, FP&A, analytics, technology enablement, transactions, operational improvement, and turnaround and restructuring. The firm is headquartered in New York, with 11 offices and 1,700+ professionals around the globe.
“Building AI that changes outcomes for portfolio companies takes three things working together: a modern data foundation, FDEs who build on top of it, and people who understand how finance and operations actually work,” said Kyle Roemer, Managing Director and Global Head of Data & AI at Accordion. “Stride provides us with the elite engineering strength to pair with our operational teams, delivering agentic workflows and AI systems for PE-backed companies at scale.”
“We founded Stride around senior engineers embedded directly inside client teams,” said Debbie Madden. “Joining Accordion means portfolio companies get that same embedded engineering built directly into the finance work Accordion already does, with one unified team owning the data, the system, and the result.”
“A demo is one thing. Getting AI into production inside a regulated business, without breaking anything, is another,” said Francisco Martin. “That’s what our engineers are built for. Pairing that with Accordion’s financial expertise and reach means we can run that same rigor across hundreds of portfolio companies at once, instead of one client at a time.”
Commenting on Equiteq’s role in the transaction, Debbie Madden said, “Equiteq was an exceptional partner from the first day to the last. They found the right home for Stride in Accordion and managed every detail, from the numbers to the most complex strategic questions, with responsiveness and a positive, constructive approach throughout. I would recommend them to any founder considering a sale.”
Derek Bell, Managing Director at Equiteq, said, “It has been a privilege to work with Debbie, Francisco, and the Stride team. Over more than a decade, they have built a firm that consistently delivers production-grade software for demanding enterprise clients, and they have been at the forefront of AI engineering and agentic workflows. Their combination with Accordion brings that capability directly to sponsors and their portfolio companies. We wish them every success in this next chapter.”