Nasdaq has acquired Quandl, a Canada-based alternative and core financial data provider, for an undisclosed price.
Image: Nasdaq acquires Canada-based alternative data provider Quandl. Photo: courtesy of Gabriele Giuseppini/Wikimedia Commons.
Established in Toronto in 2012, Quandl serves more than 30,000 active monthly users from data collected from over 350 sources.
The Canadian company provides a global database comprising alternative, financial and public data. Included in these are information on capital markets, energy, shipping, healthcare, education, economics, demography and society.
Nasdaq will merge the company with its existing Analytics Hub business which operates within Global Information Services.
According to Nasdaq, Quandl is used by eight hedge funds and 14 large banks. Apart from that, the Canadian firm has also formed relationships with several major data providers to offer institutional and Main Street investors access to an expanding library of data to inform research and trading / investing decisions.
Quandl CEO Tammer Kamel said: “Investors today are demanding actionable intelligence from new and expansive data sources at an increasingly rapid rate. 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.”
Nasdaq said that the investment in the Canadian firm is in line with its strategy to maximize opportunities as a technology and analytics provider to capital markets. Further, it also aligns with its capital deployment and return on investment capital goals, said Nasdaq.
Nasdaq Global Information Services executive vice president and head Bjorn Sibbern said: “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.
“Quandl’s leadership, user community, and team of data scientists combined with Nasdaq’s alternative data group and global reach, will help our diverse client base derive a broad array of new investing opportunities.”
In September this year, Nasdaq agreed to acquire Swedish fintech firm Cinnober Financial Technology for $190m. Cinnober offers services to brokers, exchanges and clearinghouses.