About

Who We Are

Driving Essential Intelligence Through AI & Machine Learning

Kensho is the AI and Innovation Hub for S&P Global. We develop cutting-edge technologies that transform businesses.

By pairing the latest advances in machine learning with the unparalleled breadth and depth of data at S&P Global, Kensho gives customers comprehensive, timely, actionable insights for making decisions with conviction.

What We Do

Kensho leverages S&P’s world-class data to build machine learning applications internally for S&P Global and externally for our clients.

We work primarily with natural language data, including complex documents and speech, and build machine learning models that add layers of structure to unstructured and semi-structured data.

These foundational AI services improve the breadth and speed of data collection, the depth of data enrichment, and the ease and relevance of data discovery, solving some of the most difficult challenges facing businesses today.

Kensho’s solutions transform unstructured data into meaningful and actionable business insights.

Learn more about Kensho’s cutting-edge technology solutions

About Our Solutions

Where We Are

Kensho is headquartered in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA.

We also have offices in New York City and Washington, DC. Take a virtual tour of our beautiful Cambridge office

Kensho was acquired by S&P Global in 2018, and continues to operate independently, retaining its distinct brand, culture and technology stack.

Our Values

We insist on action bias and minimizing unhelpful hierarchy and unnecessary process.

We collaborate to understand our teammates’ diverse perspectives to solve hard problems together. We dedicate work time and resources to explore new ideas and to learn new things. We produce technology that is scalable, robust, and useful. We communicate openly, honestly, efficiently, and with kindness for one another.

Our five core values are:

Go Team

We put the team before ourselves. We aren’t selfish. We disagree but commit.

Empowerment

We prefer a flat hierarchy and don’t pay much attention to titles. We encourage intelligent risk-taking; we like action, and we don’t waste time.

Inclusion

We encourage differences. We respect and seek out backgrounds and opinions that are different from our own.

Open Communication

We default to openness and happily acknowledge and embrace failures so we can learn from them.

Pursuit of Excellence

We never sacrifice our high bar and optimize under the assumption that quality work hours from the best people are the scarcest resource.

Learn More

Leadership Team

Bhavesh Dayalji, CEO

Bhavesh is the Chief Executive Officer of Kensho. He has worked to drive Kensho’s growth through the use of its products at the world’s largest financial institutions and the U.S. Intelligence Community. Bhavesh was one of the company’s early hires, and has served in a variety of leadership roles focused on developing and scaling Kensho’s products, engineering and client-facing teams before the acquisition to S&P Global in 2018. Since the acquisition, Kensho has focused on leveraging AI to increase product innovation and transform businesses.

Kensho’s strength comes from the curiosity of our people and the way we’re motivated by the most complex problems.

Prior to Kensho, Bhavesh was a senior leader in Deloitte’s strategy and M&A practice. He was the engagement leader for many high-profile C-suite clients, advising them on M&A strategy, leading due diligence efforts and developing growth strategies in the financial services industry.

Bhavesh started his career working on the software engineering team at CERN, the place the World Wide Web was invented. Bhavesh graduated with a BS in Software Engineering and Physics from De Montfort University in Leicester, United Kingdom.

Melissa Whitehead, CTO

Melissa joined Kensho as a software engineer in August of 2016, and has worked her way through several roles with increasing impact, including running the Internal Tools team and serving as Head of Data Engineering and Query Infrastructure.

For me, success looks like an engaged team who sees the technical path forward and can confidently execute because they understand where we are going as a company. There’s a lot of opportunity in front of us, and I’m excited to help shape what lies ahead!

Melissa loves working at Kensho because of the way the team takes the time to get to know each other as people, not just coworkers, through programs like My Story and Kensho Trivia. She also appreciates how we use our skills to leave an imprint on our community through Team Impact work, and how we take time to learn from both our successes and our failures. “And we have amazing pun wars and fierce debates over what constitutes a sandwich.”

In her spare time, Melissa enjoys playing strategy board games with her kids and amateur bird photography.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Kensho is committed to creating a kind, diverse and equitable workplace, fostering a sense of belonging, and ensuring that the company is a place where employees can bring their whole selves to work. Our DEI efforts are run by our Chief of Staff extraordinaire, Meaghan Cassidy, who partners on a range of initiatives with individuals across Kensho and S&P Global, and all Kenshins are expected to actively participate in moving DEI efforts forward.

Some recent DEI initiatives have included a Tech Investment Day, which was used to eliminate non-inclusive language from our technology and coding terms, training courses and awareness workshops, a monthly newsletter of suggested DEI-related reading / listening / watching, mental health awareness, support for caregivers and parents, and more.

See how DEI is central to our culture

Intellectual Curiosity and Continuous Learning

Curiosity is part of Kensho’s DNA

Curiosity is part of Kensho’s DNA. From grassroots meetups to company-sponsored programs, Kenshins have a huge range of options for keeping their knowledge and skills up to date and finding inspiration for new ideas.

Continuous Education

A benefit available to full-time employees that includes training courses and tuition reimbursement.

Knowledge Days

A monthly day set aside for engineers to break from their normal projects and focus on learning new skills.

Kensho AI Lab

The start-of-the-art AI Lab in Kensho’s Cambridge office hosts events for AI and ML enthusiasts.

Tech Talks

Where engineering team members share technical knowledge to help broaden the entire team’s skillbase.

Fireside Chats

Informal conversations on a variety of topics, from DEI issues to business strategy to technology.

ML Journal Club

A group of Kenshins who read Machine Learning journal articles, then meet to discuss interesting or applicable ideas.

Lunch & Learn

Sessions where we share insights and ideas over a brown bag lunch.

Lightning Talks

Fun 5-minute talks on any topic with one rule - it can’t be related to the person’s job!

Kensho AI Lab

Kensho’s AI Lab, located in our Harvard Square headquarters, is a state-of-the-art facility for hosting meetups, tech talks and hackathons for AI and machine learning enthusiasts, software developers, and the local tech community.

Team Impact

Team Impact takes the lead on Kensho‘s community involvement and skills-based volunteer efforts.

The cross-functional team currently has three working groups – Data Journalism, Environmental Impact and Educational Equity.

These working groups have tackled projects large and small with a range of external partners and an eye towards initiatives that allow Kenshins to use their in-demand skills in data science, machine learning and software engineering and more to have maximum positive impact in their communities.

Read our Team Impact page

History

Founded out of Harvard and MIT in 2013, Kensho received backing from Google Ventures, leading financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, JPMorgan Chase and S&P Global, and the venture capital arm of the CIA, In-Q-Tel.

Over five years, the team at Kensho built analytical products used by some of the world’s biggest financial institutions and the U.S. Intelligence Community.

In April of 2018, Kensho was acquired by S&P Global, and the two companies have partnered closely, with Kensho’s suite of technologies helping cement S&P Global’s reputation as one of the world’s best data companies.

Check out our latest AI & ML

Two Kensho employees having a coffee chat.