Year in review

My posts

Below are links to my most liked and viewed posts of the year. Maybe it was the memes?!

Most liked post - 120 likes

Most viewed post - 18,529 impressions

Who I follow / subscribe to

Below is a list of others in the industry whose writing and insights I frequently read and cite. By no means is this an exhaustive list, but I wanted to give a shoutout and credit to others contributing thought leadership to the community.

• John Farrall, CEO at 90 West Data. John writes the Alternative Data Weekly newsletter with must-read articles, podcasts, and charts, each with his expert commentary.

• Chad Fox, Managing Partner at Fox Ventures. Chad writes weekly on fintech and digital assets. He also runs a syndicate, with investments in fintech companies including Pipe, Baraka, and Caplight.

• Alex Izydorczyk, most recently Head of Data Science at Coatue. Alex has a Substack where he pens interesting articles such as Creating Impossible Data and Some Data on Data Companies.

• Jason Koulouras, Global Market Data Leader at Bridgewater. Jason posts interesting data jobs from across the ecosystem on LinkedIn daily. If you’re looking for a new role in data, know someone who is, or just like to keep tabs on the hiring landscape, Jason and Dustin (below) are must follows.

• Dustin Schimek, Co-Host of Data Careers Summit. Dustin posts a weekly recap of data jobs organized by type and level (entry-leadership). In addition to posting about jobs, Dustin hosts the Data Ideas podcast.

• Matt Turck, Managing Director at FirstMark Capital. Matt publishes on his blog and is also the organizer of Data Driven NYC, the world’s largest Big Data & AI community.

• Ethan Aaron, CEO at Portable. Ethan posts almost daily on LinkedIn, either with his own thought-provoking content, or engaging in debates and dialogue with others in the data space. You may know him from the “low-key data happy hour,” a meetup he started in NYC which has since spread to cities all over the world. If you’re not on the invite list, you can sign-up here.

• Auren Hoffman, CEO at SafeGraph. In addition to his CEO role, Auren is one of the most active investors in the industry, hosts the World of DaaS podcast, and publishes Five Links on his Summation newsletter. But my favorite is his hand-drawn charts such as the one below…

• Chad Sanderson, most recently Head of Product, Data Platform at Convoy. Chad is a go-to thought leader on Data Contracts. He frequently posts on LinkedIn and also has a Substack. He also started a new community, Data Quality Camp.

• Kelly Koscuiszka and Peter Greene, Partners at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP. Peter and Kelly are well known for their leadership around data compliance, regulation, and legal matters. They often speak at conferences and have recently hosted events with the FISD and Eagle Alpha, often with speakers from the S.E.C.

• Michael Mayhew and Sandy Bragg at Integrity Research. Integrity writes on investment banking, alternative data, and expert networks, and Michael and Sandy are frequent speakers at industry conferences. They also include guest writers for articles, such as this one from Mikheil Shengelia at Eagle Alpha, Alternative Data M&A is Heating Up: Looking Back and Ahead.

• Mark Fleming-Williams, Head of Data Sourcing at Capital Fund Management. Mark hosts The Alternative Data Podcast, with weekly discussions from data practitioners and company leaders. In addition to hearing interesting insights about the industry, I also learn about many new companies and capabilities through this podcast.

• Max Friberg, CEO at Inex One. Max may be the one person who loves expert networks more than me (and that is saying a lot). In addition to providing industry commentary throughout the year, Max puts together one of the only industry sizing analyses annually.

• Moses Sternstein, Head of Growth at System2. Moses writes the Random Walk newsletter weekly, with interesting market commentary and statistical analysis using data from multiple providers.

• David Yakobovitch, Global Product Lead at Google and General Partner at DataPower Ventures. David is an active investor in data & analytics companies through his DataPower Ventures syndicate. He also hosts the Tech Dinner Series, running events that connect founders, investors, developers, and operators in NYC and SF. Sign-up here for invites to future events.

M&A recap

• 109 M&A events

• Most active acquirers (by # of acquisitions)

  • London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) (4): Acadia, Global Data Consortium, MayStreet, Tora.

  • TIFIN (3): All Star Charts, SharingAlpha, Ino.com

  • Tie for 3rd with 2 acquisitions each: Envestnet, Fitch, McKinsey, Nasdaq, Snowflake, United Fintech.

Fundraising recap

• 151 fundraising events

• Largest fundraise: FNZ Group (wealth management) raised $1.4B in a round led by CPP Investments and Motive Partners. The transaction values FNZ at over $20B.

• Most active investors (by # of investments lead)

  • Tiger Global (7): Aporia, Census, Devron, FalconX, Genesis, Opto Investments, Timescale.

  • Snowflake (4): Collibra, Domino Data Lab, Matillion, OpenAP.

  • Goldman Sachs (4): AlphaSense, data.world, DataStax, SingleStore.

• Largest by round*

  • Seed: Validio (data quality) raised $15M in a Seed round led by Lakestar with participation from J12.

  • Series A: Opto Investments (private markets) raised $145M in a Series A led by Tiger Global with participation from 8VC, MSD Capital, Clocktower Ventures, FinVC, and HOF Capital.

  • Series B: GWI (audience insights) raised $180M in a Series B led by Permira.

  • Series C: Astronomer (data orchestration) raised $213M in a Series C led by Insight Partners with participation from Meritech Capital, Salesforce Ventures, J.P. Morgan, K5 Global, Sutter Hill Ventures, Venrock, and Sierra Ventures.

  • Series D: Starburst (analytics engine) raised $250M in a Series D led by Alkeon Capital with participation from Altimeter, B Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Coatue, Index Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures.

  • Series E: Dremio (data ingestion) raised $160M in a Series E led by Adams Street Partners with participation from Sapphire Ventures, Insight Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, and Cisco Investments.

  • Series F: Chainalysis (blockchain data) raised $170M in a Series F led by GIC with participation from Accel, Blackstone, Dragoneer, FundersClub, BNY Mellon, and Emergence Capital.

  • Growth: RapidRatings (financial health ratings) raised $200M in a Growth round led by Spectrum Equity and 22C Capital.

*does not include unknown rounds, undisclosed financials, or strategic investments.

People moves, promotions, and appointments

• 366 people moves highlighted

• What will 2023 bring? More? Less? Be sure to send me your moves each week.

And not to forget the consultants & advisors

Anduril Partners

Led by Jon Neitzell, Anduril Partners is an investment and advisory firm focused on the application of data-driven processes. Jon was previously Chief Data Officer at Goldman Sachs Fundamental Equities, where he previously served as a Portfolio Manager for the Technology Opportunities Fund. Jon serves as an Advisor to Aiera, Arbor Advisory Group, Aptiviti ETR, Connacht Asset Management, Equity Data Science, GoQuant, and SESAMm. www.andurilpartners.ai

CP Capital Enterprises

Chris Petrescu founded CP Capital Enterprises to enable buyers of data (hedge funds, VC, PE) to leverage data as a competitive edge. After spending time in buy-side data strategy roles at WorldQuant and ExodusPoint, Chris now offers his services through an outsourced data strategist model to streamline high quality data sourcing, vendor negotiations, data onboarding, and other strategic initiatives. CP also engages with data owners and sellers to optimize their go-to-market strategies and monetize their data assets. www.cpcapital-llc.com

EAS Innovation Consulting

Led by Evan Schnidman, EAS Innovation provides consulting and advisory services to companies in the data, analytics, and technology space. Evan is a Co-Founder of MarketReader and was previously Founder & CEO of Prattle (acquired by Liquidnet). He serves as an Advisor to AltHub, Arbor Advisory Group, Civex, EventVestor, GeoQuant, Gravity AI, Helios, Index Standard, Jaxon, Mind-Alliance, New Constructs, RDA Index, Suretys, Taiyo AI, and ValidMind. easinnovation.com

^Let me know if you’d like an intro to any of the above consultants / advisors.

A tale of two lakeside warehouses

With all the hubbub about Snowflake vs. Databricks, I decided to take a look at their investment portfolios. Each company has a venture arm, Snowflake Ventures (led by Stefan Williams) and Databricks Ventures (led by Andrew Ferguson). Interestingly 2/3 of the Databricks Ventures portfolio overlaps with Snowflake Ventures. It’s worth noting that Databricks Ventures launched only ~1 year ago. Have a look at the venn diagram of portcos below…

Source: companies websites