Knoema Pushes Into Alt Data With Adaptive Management Buy

Knoema, an end-to-end data and knowledge management platform, has acquired Adaptive Management, an alternative data aggregator and solutions provider, for an undisclosed amount. Adaptive brings 1,300 alternative datasets into Knoema’s global time-series database. The addition of Adaptive brings Knoema’s total number of datasets and data sources up to more than 30,000 and roughly 1,700, respectively.

Charles Poliacof, Knoema CEO, says the pairing will offer a user experience with a heavy emphasis on workflows and “autonomous data discovery,” which is the ability to work in an any environment—be it Excel, Word, Chrome, Python, or other interface—query any dataset you want, have any related matches materialize, and manipulate that data on the fly, Poliacof says.

By design, Knoema is a loosely-tethered toolkit, so Poliacof does not anticipate the integration process to be too strenuous. Most of what’s in DataMonster—Adaptive’s platform—will port directly into Knoema, such as the ability to graph multiple datasets together, temporarily adjust them, and then match them to KPIs. It’s more of a knowledge transfer and joint collaboration, Poliacof says.

The combined offering also presents a value proposition to data vendors who want to target certain audiences—both financial and non-financial.

Adaptive’s alternative datasets will be discoverable on Knoema’s online public platform, which gets 500,000 unique visitors per month, and/or through its Enterprise platform, which has 16,000 users. Through a permissioned system, the data providers will decide which platforms it will contribute to, based on which audiences they want to target. The hope is that more alt data vendors will eventually jump on board, as Knoema can serve as a new source of marketing and distribution for them.

Though the alt data space has entered a post-hype phase, with some vendors either consolidating, partnering, or scaling-back operations, Poliacof still sees major value and opportunity in it.

“There was a time where if you had access to an expert network [a type of business that connects companies to subject-matter experts], it was really a differentiated source of information. And then there was a time where if you didn’t have access to an expert network, you were at a disadvantage,” Poliacof says. “So to the extent that data continues to impact the business hypothesis [and] the investment hypothesis, it will be table stakes regardless.”

In 2020, Poliacof says Knoema is focusing on going even “deeper into the weeds” of workflows, so that when working with and sharing data, users can write less additional code when manipulating it, use less Excel, circulate fewer emails throughout their organizations, and have data update anywhere it is automatically if it was updated in one place.

As for Adaptive, last year the New York-based vendor releasaed a free-to-use online platform for searching and assessing the third-party alternative datasets available via its DataMonster platform.

Launched at the end of September, the Discover platform contains data from more than 210 alternative data providers, and, at the time, Adaptive had already signed up 70 investment firms for the free, web-based service. While discretionary funds have taken to the service, the tool is also aimed at quantitative funds and private-equity firms.