Merrill Lynch has invested $11 million in India's Copal Partners, a provider of outsourced research and analytics services to investment banks, hedge funds and private equity firms.
Merrill is the third major Wall Street firm to buy into Copal - both Deutsche Bank and Citigroup have previously invested in the firm - and former Merrill research director Andrew Melnick is non-executive chairman of the company.
Rishi Khosla, Copal CEO, told reporters that the three banks collectively own around 25% of the business.
Copal was founded in 2002 by a group of professionals from GE Capital, Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Co. The firm is officially based in the UK but maintains staff in New Delhi that provides outsourced financial research and analytics services to investment banks, including the three that have bought into the company.
Merrill currently uses Copal's deal research for its branded proposals and evaluations for corporate clients.
In a statement Khosla says the Merrill investment "represents a strong vote of confidence in our long-term growth prospects and the validity of our business model".