Venture Capital Shop Hyperplane Backs Data Startup
Summary
With a scarcity of advanced computing talent for asset managers, a Boston VC outfit is betting that machines can help turn anybody into a quant. Jack Klinck, a managing partner at Hyperplane who founded State Street’s Global Exchange data and analytics business, will become chairman of Elsen’s board. [II Deep Dive: Survey: Data May Be the Last Best Hope to Beat Index Trend] Klinck says the asset management industry — particularly traditional firms — has been struggling to tap into the explosion of data that it collects every day on the markets and its customers as well as how to integrate innovative new sources that can lead to investment insights. Well-known quantitatively-focused alternative investment firms like Two Sigma and Renaissance Technologies employ hundreds of highly paid professionals to do this work. One challenge is that simply preparing data, including structuring it and turning it into a form that can then be processed, takes up the majority of users’ time.