Nasdaq has agreed to buy a Toronto-based company called Quandl, a provider of alternative and core financial data.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“Quandl will allow Nasdaq to partner more closely with the investing community as the industry continuously seeks ways to evaluate an endless supply of information to drive new insights, investment ideas and deliver alpha,” said Bjorn Sibbern, Executive Vice President and Head of Nasdaq’s Global Information Services.
Quandl provides alternative data and core financial data from over 350 sources to more than 30,000 active monthly users. The company offers a global database of alternative, financial and public data, including information on capital markets, energy, shipping, healthcare, education, demography, economics and society. Nasdaq plans to combine Quandl with its existing Analytics Hub business within Global Information Services.
“Investors today are demanding actionable intelligence from new and expansive data sources at an increasingly rapid rate,” said Tammer Kamel, CEO of Quandl. “Joining with Nasdaq will enable us to serve investors with strengthened real-time capabilities and greatly enhanced data hygiene and symbology. Our existing set of clients, including the world’s top hedge funds and investment banks, stand to benefit greatly from our mutual vision that data is going to become the primary driver of active investment performance over the next decade.”
Quandl is used by eight of the top 10 hedge funds and 14 of the top 15 largest banks, according to the company.
Research firm Greenwich Associates reported that investors are likely to spend about $300 million for alternative data this year, up from $170 million last year. And a Deloitte study estimated that spending on alternative data may exceed $7 billion by 2020, with an annual growth rate of 21 percent.
Alternative data is a fragmented industry, with dozens of companies selling sets of information to investors. Greenwich, which interviewed 40 asset managers for its third-quarter report on alternative data, said Quandl had the best name recognition in the industry.