Augmenting its $564 billion assets under management, Blackstone Group Inc (NYSE:BX) announces a definitive agreement to acquire tech-powered genealogy services provider Ancestry from its private equity rivals like tech-investor firm Silver Lake, GIC, Spectrum Equity, and Permira for a total enterprise value of $4.7 billion. GIC will, however, continue to retain a significant minority stake in the company.

With the flaring number of digital consumers and with more of them staying indoors because of the

pandemic, Blackstone hopes there will be surge in demand for Ancestry’s services. Powered by technology, the company harnesses the information found in family trees and historical records to help people gain a new level of understanding about their lives. They can discover their family story and gain actionable insights about their health and wellness through its platform. Ancestry comprises a collection of 24 billion records and over 18 million people in its AncestryDNA network.

In a statement, David Kestnbaum, Senior Managing Director, Blackstone, says: “We are very excited to partner with Ancestry and its management team. We believe Ancestry has significant runway for further growth as people of all ages and backgrounds become increasingly interested in learning more about their family histories and themselves.” He adds, “We look forward to investing behind further data, functionality, and product development across Ancestry’s market leading platform to continue to provide a differentiated service. Our investment is a prime example of Blackstone’s continued, high-conviction focus on investing in growing, digital consumer businesses, which are resilient in the current environment and beyond.”

Having commenced its operations in 1996 as website that stored family history, Ancestry grew over the last two decades, leveraging the advancements DNA analysis technologies and sky-rocketing mobile phone users. Currently, the company operates in 30+ countries with more than three million paying subscribers and more than $1 billion in annual revenue.