SUMIFYOUFEELLIKEIT()

Or whatever the AI decides it wants to do

Author

Dan Entrup
January 26, 2026

Still digging out (not from snow) from two conferences last week and missed publishing.

Since last post we’ve seen 4 M&A deals, 11 funding rounds, 18 people moves & promotions, 5 roles, 3 articles, and 2 newly added upcoming events.

Plus, last edition’s top clicked link.

White Paper

I spoke last week at the BattleFin Miami Conference on a panel of “hot takes” alongside Jason DeRise of Liberty Mutual Investments (previously Head of Data Strategy at UBS Evidence Lab) and Michael Watson of Hedgineer (previously Head of Equities Engineering at Citadel).

One of my “hot takes” was about the history of data marketplaces, why most failed, but why now is different and that the future of data procurement is instant, agentic, consumption-based, and pre-integrated/mapped. I later sat down for a read of white paper written by my friends at Carbon Arc.

In the paper, Carbon Arc covers some fascinating changing dynamics, including:

  • The First Revolution: Tokenization of Information (1950s–Present)

  • The Second Revolution: Tokenization of Value (2008–Present)

  • The Economics of Current AI Infrastructure and the Compute Constraint

  • Three Structural Failures of Current AI Platforms

  • Real-Time Transaction Data and the Organizational World Model

M&A

*Deals are announced but may not be closed.

Funding

  • Alpaca (brokerage APIs) raised $150M at a $1.15B valuation in a Series D led by Drive Capital.

  • Artie (real-time data streaming) raised $12M in a Series A led by Standard Capital.

  • ClickHouse (analytical database) raised $400M in a Series D led by Dragoneer.

  • Exile Group (trade data and intelligence) received an investment from Bridgepoint.

  • FireAI (AI analytics) raised ₹62M in Pre-Seed and Seed rounds.

  • HData (regulatory intelligence) received and investment from MassMutual Ventures.

  • Listen Labs (AI-led customer research) raised $69M in a Series B led by Ribbit Capital.

  • Nasdaq Private Market (private markets liquidity solutions) raised $37.6M in a Series C led by Cerity Partners.

  • OpenEvidence (AI-powered medical search engine) raised $250M at a $12B valuation in a Series D led by Thrive Capital and DST.

  • SkyFi (earth observation) raised $12.7M in a Series A led by Buoyant Ventures and IronGate Capital Advisors.

  • Yuki (data spend management) raised $6M in a Seed round led by Hyperwise Ventures.

People Moves, Promotions, and Appointments

Powered by

  • David Bendes was promoted to Data/AI Strategy & Innovation Lead at the National Basketball Association (NBA).

  • Zee Bhunnoo joined Mondelēz International as Senior Director, Insights & Analytics Technology.

  • Rebecca Bleasdale was promoted to Chief Marketing Officer at RepRisk.

  • Luis Castellanos joined Verity as Global Head of RMS Sales.

  • Daniel Dunn joined Wood Mackenzie as Chief Commercial Officer.

  • Chase Edmondson joined RepVue as Senior Account Executive, Alternative Data.

  • Jack Fisher joined Capsa AI as Chief Revenue Officer.

  • Jia-Lin Fu joined ISS Market Intelligence as Executive Director, Head of Product (MarketPro US).

  • Jason Glazer joined BCA Research as SVP, Sales.

  • Daniel Gwak joined IQT as Chief Investment Officer.

  • Dean Jacobsen was promoted to CEO at Finaeon.

  • Alex Lawton joined Clear Street as CEO, UK.

  • Richard Lichtenstein joined Berkshire Partners as Operating Partner, Head of Data Science and AI.

  • Jeylan Mammadova joined Guidepoint as Director Research, International Healthcare.

  • Anish Rao joined Listen Labs as Head of Growth.

  • Murray Roos joined Ocean Wall as CEO.

  • Andrew Rosa was promoted to Data Strategy Lead - Healthcare & Commodities at Point72.

  • Hannah Werner joined Citadel Securities as VP, Data Sourcing & Strategy.

*may not have started roles, but roles are announced or updates provided online.

Who’s Hiring

*salaries only listed where provided by the company and may vary based on location and other factors. See links for specific salary details.

What I’m Reading

Upcoming Events

*new events added since last newsletter

Resources

Favor

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Views here are the author’s own and not of any employers or companies. The author may be compensated for pieces in this newsletter.