^Formula 1 chief appalled to find team using Excel to manage 20,000 car parts.
Since last post we’ve seen 1 acquisition, 9 fundraising rounds, 6 people moves & promotions, 6 roles, 1 article, 1 podcast, and 3 newly added events.
Something New
Introducing the It’s Pronounced Data - Activity Feed. This set of spreadsheets is updated as I come across activity in the space. It allows you to sort, filter, and see activity before the weekly publication date, and also keep an ongoing tracker with recap analytics each quarter. The file includes a job board (w/ link status), fundraising rounds, and M&A transaction list. The file is available to It’s Pronounced Data paid subscribers (link at the bottom of this post beyond the paywall). It’s only $9.99/month or $100/year.
My friends at Nomad Data recently announced that they are making the world’s largest collection of data completely free for any business user to search. With the update launched last week, anyone with a corporate email can submit a data request to Nomad’s network of nearly 3,000 vendors to discover the critical data they are looking for. The company also announced two new features:
New Providers - Buyers can now browse recently-added data providers, including the growing ranks of unique corporate data joining the platform, and their associated use cases, no longer requiring a specific use-case in mind.
Extended Requests - Users can create an “open order” for a data need that remains on the platform indefinitely, with results updated each time a new provider joins the platform or current providers add a new product which fits the request.
Nomad Data was founded in 2020 by Brad Schneider (former CEO of Adaptive Management and Portfolio Manager at Tiger Management) and Justin Manikas (former product & sales leader at Amadeus and Dataminr) and is backed by leading investors including Bloomberg Beta, Struck Capital, and Correlation Ventures.
M&A
Fundraising
Activeloop (database for AI) raised $11M in a Series A led by Streamlined Ventures.
Bedrock Security (data security) raised $10M in a Seed round led by Greylock.
Century Health (healthcare data & AI) raised $2M in a Pre-Seed round led by 2048 Ventures.
Dema (eCommerce analytics) raised €7M in a Seed round led by J12 Ventures and Daphni.
Foundational (data issue prevention) raised $8M in a Seed round led by Viola Ventures and Gradient.
FundGuard (investment accounting platform) raised $100M in a Series C led by Key1 Capital.
Observe (data observability) raised $115M in a Series B led by Sutter Hill Ventures.
Tarsal (security data movement) raised $6M in a Seed round led by Harpoon Ventures and Mango Capital.
ValidMind (AI risk management) raised $8.1M in a Seed round led by Point72 Ventures.
People Moves, Promotions, and Appointments
Denver Brown was promoted to Global Head of Institutional Sales at CFRA Research.
Nakul Kapoor was promoted to Managing Director, Head of Ratings Products at Fitch Solutions.
Jack Killea joined Maiden Century as VP, Head of Partnerships.
Adele Li joined OpenAI as Data Strategy & Partnerships Lead.
Rick Scurfield joined VAST Data as Chief Revenue Officer.
Felipe Torres joined Placer.ai as Senior Account Executive, Financial Services.
Who’s Hiring
Blackstone is hiring a Portfolio Operations, Blackstone Data Science – Artificial Intelligence Management Program ($120K-$140K).
Databricks is hiring a Partner Sales Director, Financial Services.
Delta Global Management is hiring a Software Engineer.
Deutsche Bank is hiring a Head of Market Data Methodology.
GLG is hiring a Associate General Counsel - Litigation ($220K-$300K)
Liberty Mutual Investments is hiring a Director I, Financial Data Science ($124K-$216K).
*salaries only listed where provided by the company. See links for specific salary details.
What I’m Reading
What I’m Listening To
Founded & Funded Podcast episode featuring Jake Graham of Bobsled in discussion with Sabrina Wu of Madrona Ventures.
Upcoming Events
*new events added since last newsletter
New York FinTech Week, April 8-12, NYC
FinTech Sandbox Demo Days, April 9 and 11, Virtual
FISD Alternative Data Council: In the Weeds, Compliance and Generative AI 2.0, April 9, NYC
Low-Key Data Happy Hour, April 10, NYC
Data Universe, April 10-11, NYC
AWS Capital Markets Financial Data Forum, April 11, NYC
VC Platform Global Summit, April 15-17, Miami
Insight Innovation Exchange (IIEX), April 17-18, Austin
World of DaaS Summit, April 18, Washington D.C.
MIT: Forging the Future of Business with AI, April 18, Cambridge
*Neudata Data Day for Investors, April 25, Hong Kong
TDWI Modern Data Leader's Summit, April 29-May 1, Chicago
Knowledge Graph Conference, May 6-10, NYC
Data Summit, May 8-9, Boston
Battle of the Quants, May 9, NYC
DataIQ 100 Summit, May 20-21, Miami
Asia Financial Information Conference (AsiaFIC), May 28-29, Singapore
*Neudata Summer Data Summit, June 4, NYC
SuperReturn International, June 4-7, Berlin
*FISD New York, June 6, NYC
Substantive Research - Unbundling Uncovered, June 13, NYC
The Quirk’s Event, July 17-18, NYC
Boston Fintech Week, September 16-20, Boston
Views here are the author’s own and not of any employers or companies. The author may be compensated for pieces in this newsletter.