The ex-CEO of Bloomberg has joined the board of a startup people are calling 'Bloomberg for private companies'

Lex Fenwick, the former CEO of Dow Jones and Bloomberg, is joining the board of London startup DueDil.

Fenwick is joining as a non-executive director, advising the highly rated startup on its growth.

DueDil pulls together hundreds of different data points on privately owned companies, presenting them in an easy to understand format on its website.

It was originally built to let businesses do due diligence for takeover deals, but companies like Royal Mail and Zipcar now use it for finding new customers. The Financial Times dubbed it the "Bloomberg of private companies" and the startup has raised $22 million since launching in 2011.

Fenwick has plenty of experience in the world of business intelligence. He spent over 20 years at Bloomberg, serving as CEO for seven years when the company's founder Michael Bloomberg ran for New York mayor in 2001.

Fenwick left Bloomberg in 2012 to run Dow Jones, the financial information company known for its news wire and paper The Wall Street Journal.

But Fenwick was ousted from Dow Jones last January after a poor reception for DJX, a service he launched to compete with Bloomberg in the terminal market.

DueDil's founder and CEO Damian Kimmelman told Business Insider over email: "I am delighted that Lex has joined the board at DueDil.

"As someone who played an instrumental role in turning Bloomberg into the market leader and multi-billion dollar company it is today, he has a vast wealth of experience and expertise that will prove invaluable to DueDil as we continue on our mission to open up private company information to the world."

Fenwick told Business Insider over email: "For over 20 years I have been involved with companies and products that collect data, and write software that allows you to analyse that data and then sell it, always with the emphasis on customer service.

"Duedil not only does all of this wonderfully, but it also brings much-needed transparency to private companies in the UK. Investment in private companies is now in vogue courtesy of private equity, venture capital, and other funds all searching for a greater return than is currently available in the public markets. To observe and occasionally help a company like Duedil chart its course is very exciting."