What Industry’s Pierpoint and Co Is Based Off

The British television series Industry has returned for its third season, continuing to gain momentum and popularity as it examines the cutthroat investment firm Pierpoint & Co. Though the company on the HBO series is fictional, here is what Industry’s Pierpoint & Co. is based off of in real life.

Industry’s Pierpoint and Co Has its Roots in Real Life

Industry explores the British financial sector in modern London, following five recent graduates competing for permanent positions at finance company Pierpoint & Co. Series creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay based the characters and premise off their own experiences working in the finance industry after graduating from Oxford, before making a career pivot towards television. Though it has been some time since both Down and Kay were working in finance, they feel that the highly competitive and cutthroat atmosphere of the field hasn’t largely changed since their own time working in it.

There are a number of real-life financial firms and investment banks that certainly operate in similar ways to Pierpoint & Co. in Industry. Deutsche Bank, UBS, Goldman Sachs, and Credit Suisse are major financial firms that engage in similar business activities as Pierpoint & Co., though perhaps without all the sex, drugs, and heightened drama that comes expected with an entertaining HBO series. There has been speculation that Pierpoint & Co. is loosely based on J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs, given the fictional company’s name and layout of its corporate office, though the production has not singled out any specific firms as inspirations.

Pierpoint and Co., then, is not based on any one real life company specifically, although it is similar in many ways to how modern investment firms are run, and draws from the real-life experiences of its creators working in finance.

Industry premiered November 2020 on HBO and BBC Two, with a second season premiering in August 2022 and third season in August 2024. Critically acclaimed, the series has been regarded as the heir apparent to other prestige drama series like Succession and Mad Men for its compelling characters and intense workplace sequences. The third season of Industry is slated to conclude its initial broadcast run in September 2024.