Startup Koyfin Readies New Data, Tools for Research Visualization Platform

Koyfin, a New York-based investment research data visualization startup, plans to roll out a series of new features by year-end, ahead of the introduction of a premium, fee-liable version of is platform next year.

Later this year, Koyfin will add portfolio analytics and time-series data, will add global data coverage to its existing US and Canadian equities data, and advanced screening tools, says CEO Rob Koyfman, who founded the company in 2016 after 15 years on Wall Street, including at Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Lyxor Asset Management, and Tekne Capital Management.

The vendor is already ingesting global equities prices, fundamentals, estimates, and valuations, as well as data on exchange-traded funds, mutual funds, yield curves, government bonds, and currencies, and will now start making the data available to its client base of 10,000 individual and institutional users.

The advanced screening tools will allow users to identify securities by their characteristics, such as performance measures or a company’s business lines.

“We had been holding off on building these as we added more data,” Koyfman says. Similarly, the vendor has held off on introducing fees for its web-based investment research platform—which is currently free of charge—until it had added these new components.

Though Koyfin has not yet decided the specific fees it will charge, it plans to continue offering a “pretty substantial” product free of charge, and to charge based on add-on premium functions and features.

For example, the free version will still have a screening tool, but the premium version will have more screeners and the ability to save, customize and share results. Similarly, the free version will include the ability to create a watchlist within its portfolio analytics dashboard, and the premium version will allow users to create multiple watchlists and to share them.

Koyfman says he expects to charge between $100 and $300 for a professional version, and a lower rate for a premium product aimed at individual investors.

“Our product roadmap is heavily influenced by our users,” Koyfman says. “We had a vision of what we wanted to produce, but going forward, we will put a heavy emphasis on what clients are asking for, and on usage analytics—so we have a good sense of direction based on that.”

The new developments will be funded by a $3 million investment round including private equity firms Craft Ventures, Atreides Management, and Valor Equity Partners, as well as existing investors including Social Leverage. The company was self-funded for its first two years before raising a “friends and family” funding round of less than $1 million, and a small round from Social Leverage.

To support its new features and expansion, Koyfin plans to hire marketing staff and more developers, and will next year also expand its sales team.