Teach Me How To Dall-E

I’m going with Altman (KO’d Elon with the $9.74B offer 😂), Elon (Zuck already caved), Blue Bomber (duh), Kendrick (not sure who that other guy is), Toad (buying an N64 if anyone is still questioning Toad’s speed). 2,3,5,7,9. Please reply with your selection and any associated logic or reasoning. Best answer will be highlighted next week.

Since last post we’ve seen 5 acquisitions, 5 funding rounds ($349.2M raised), 11 people moves & promotions, 8 roles ($206K average salary), new industry tools from FISD, 2 articles, and 1 podcast.

M&A

• CoStar acquired Ag-Analytics (agricultural data).

• Cotiviti acquired Edifecs (healthcare data interoperability).

• FGE (energy market intelligence) merged with NexantECA (energy and chemicals advisory and analytics).

• Information Publishing Limited acquired Econoday (economic data).

• SRA Watchtower acquired Lumio Insight (data management and analytics for financial institutions).

*Deals are announced but may not be closed.

Funding

• Daphne (AI-powered platform for private markets data) received an investment from Bloomberg.

• ETFbook (ETF data and analytics) raised €4M in a Series A led by BlackFin Capital Partners.

• FGE (energy market intelligence) received an investment from TA Associates.

• Harvey (AI for professional services) raised $300M in a Series D led by Sequoia.

• Validus (financial risk management platform) received a $45M growth equity investment from FTV Capital.

People Moves, Promotions, and Appointments

• Adam Abdelaziz was promoted to Senior Engineering Manager at NewtonX.

• Joel Anderson was promoted to Chief Data Science Officer at Dig Insights.

• Matt Czarnecki was promoted to Global Account Director at AlphaSense.

• Murat Demiral joined the Advisory Board of Reticula.

• Natalie DiTomasso was promoted to VP of Business Operations at YipitData.

• Amanda Jaramillo joined The People Platform as Senior Director, Mobile Data Strategy.

• Megan Jones joined Octus as General Counsel.

• Ben Meyer joined Inflexion as Partner & Head of North America.

• Hannah Moncrief joined Ivy Exec as VP, Strategic Growth & Operations - Consulting Division.

• Lokesh Seth joined Hazeltree as CEO.

• Douglas Trafelet joined Hazeltree as Chief Commercial Officer.

Who’s Hiring

Check out the It’s Pronounced Data job board for full listings. This week’s additions are below.

• Atheneum is hiring a Principal, Global Life Sciences Survey ($100K - $125K).

• Bloomberg Beta is hiring an Associate.

• Molson Coors is hiring a VP, Consumer Insights ($210K - $276K).

• Morning Consult is hiring a Product Director ($146K - $243K).

• NewsWhip is hiring a VP, Insights and Services.

• Reynolds Consumer Products is hiring a Director, Data Strategy and Management ($195K - $210K).

• Sermo is hiring a Director, Commercial Development.

• State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) is hiring a Global Head of Data, Analytics & AI Services, SVP ($225K - $337K).

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

The FISD Alternative Data Council, in support of its mandate to provide education and establish industry best practices, announces two new industry tools:

• Compliance Considerations for Generative AI

• Compliance Due Diligence Questionnaire Including Generative AI Questions

What I’m Reading

• Separating Myth From Reality - Client-side researcher strategies for protecting panel data integrity by Efrain Ribeiro, Karine Pepin, Mary Beth Weber, Tia Maurer, and Carrie Campbell in Quirk’s.

• Portfolio managers turned consultants and podcasters are demystifying what it's like to work at big-name hedge funds like Citadel or Point72 by Bradley Saacks.

What I’m Listening To

• Data: The Key Ingredient - a discussion between Christopher Napoli at Snowflake and Richard Newman at BlackRock on the Never Done podcast.

Upcoming Events

*new events added since last newsletter

• Low-Key Data Happy Hour, February 26, NYC

• Winter Data Conference, March 7, Zell am See, Austria

• Quant Strats, March 11, NYC

• SampleCon, March 17-19, Pasadena, California

• IIEX North America, April 30 - May 1, Washington D.C.

• World of DaaS Summit, May 8, Washington D.C.

• KIMRA: Knowledge & Information Management, Research & Analysis, June 4, London

• Data Disrupt, June 4-5 2025, NYC

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