Quantexa Raises Further $175m for AI-led Decision Intelligence Offering

Quantexa has raised a further US$175 million, boosting estimated market valuation for the UK-based decision intelligence solutions provider to $2.6 billion.

The company said the additional money will be used to “progress against its mission to help enterprises and government agencies across multiple markets stay ahead in the race for AI-driven DI”.

The latest series F funding round was led by Teachers Venture Growth, part of the huge Canadian Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

GLEIF Names Chinese Certification Authority as vLEI Issuer

The China Financial Certification Authority (CFCA) has been announced as the first Chinese overseer of virtual identifiers created by the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF).

The CFCA has become a Qualified vLEI Issuer (QVI) in the Global LEI System. VLEIs are used to verify the digital identities of companies and assets in financial transactions.

The CFCA will use vLEIs to help organisations use LEIs in conjunction with Chinese identity tools. It will also investigate other ways that vLEIs can verify identities in other use cases, such as real-time account registration verification, tamper-resistant digital signing, verifiable SME credit records and ESG-based credentialing, the GLEIF said.

Bloomberg Expands Climate Risk Offering with MARS Enhancement

Bloomberg clients can now use the New York-based company’s MARS risk management tool to assess the threats to their portfolios from climate change.

MARS Climate, an addition to the data behemoth’s physical and transition risk suite of analytics, offers climate scenario analyses based on the framework devised by the Network for Greening Financial System (NGFS). The new functionality is powered by the Transition Risk Assessment Company Tool (TRACT), created by Bloomberg’s new energy finance business, BloombergNEF.

Clients can query revenue risks and opportunities inherent in their business activities, supply chains and regional presence, measured according to the different NGFS scenarios.

Governance, Security Woes ‘Holding Back Financial Sector Growth’

Data governance and security concerns are so great among UK financial services companies that they are holding back growth, according to a survey by secure computing company Optalysys.

The survey of more than 250 financial company IT professionals found that 70 per cent of decision makers said data security was holding them back, while 45 per cent said their firms experienced challenges in managing or accessing sensitive data.

“The financial services sector is the lifeblood of the UK economy, yet businesses are being limited by outdated approaches to data security,” said Optalysys chief executive Nick New. “Simply put, businesses can’t harness the real power of AI or can’t unlock the full value of their data because they are too busy trying to keep it safe. This is a massive missed opportunity and it’s holding the entire sector back.”

Zema Global Streamlines Forward-Curve Data Use

Energy commodities markets data and data management provider Zema Global has unveiled its Curve Viewer tool, which enables clients to better interrogate their data and construct the forward curves that are essential to decision making.

The new addition to Zema Global’s platform offers deeper insights into clients’ own data, the company said. It provides customisable data views, has a more user-friendly navigation structure and can be flexible enough to be deployed across trading, risk management and other functions.

“Data is the cornerstone of effective decision-making in the energy and commodity markets, but its complexity often limits its usability – Curve Viewer changes that,” said chief executive Andrea Remyn Stone. “By simplifying access and creating tools that are intuitive for a broader audience, we’re helping organisations unlock their full potential. This is about ensuring that the right data reaches the right people to support critical decision making.”

Colorado, US-based Zema Global has been offering enterprise data and data management services tailored to traders of energy commodities for a quarter of a century and has begun servicing financial institutions since it acquired Morningstar’s commodity information business late last year.

QuantCube Builds Data Model to Predict Drought

Investors in agricultural commodities are in sites for a new Hydric Stress Indicator launched by alternative data specialist QuantCube Technology. The tool is designed to provide insights into drought risks in the crop-producing regions of 20 countries.

The technology, which is available to commodity traders, financial institutions, agricultural growers and food producers, uses meteorological data and satellite imagery to offer early warnings of drought.

“As climate risks continue to challenge agricultural markets, the QuantCube Hydric Stress Indicator provides traders with a critical advantage in enabling them to anticipate disruptions,” said Alice Froidevaux, director of product development and CFA ESG at Paris-based QuantCube Technology. “In particular, the indicator is a game-changer for participants in agricultural markets eager to optimise their hedging strategies.”

ICE to Scrape Reddit Communities for Market-Useful Insights

US financial data and technology provider Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is to harvest insights and content from millions of posts made daily to the Reddit social media platform, which it will package into market-useful data products.

ICE said it would access Reddit’s Data API to “research, create and distribute new data and analytics products for the financial industry”.

The company said the posts on the platform would be used for sentiment analysis, early-trend indicators and custom analyses.

“The rich data set that flows across a platform like Reddit has the potential to provide opportunities for our customers as they look for new opportunities in global markets,” said Chris Edmonds, president of fixed-income and data services at ICE, adding that the data gleaned from Reddit posts “would help give our customers valuable insights into the markets and also help them manage risk across their portfolios”.

Databricks and Frisco Tools Seek to Simplify Workflows

A deal between Databricks and Frisco Analytics is intended to simplify data workflows and unify siloes across enterprises.

The tie-up will make Frisco’s data management tool available to clients on Databricks’ Data Intelligence Platform. Clients will have access to tools to integrate data management and governance, improve data quality and consistency and accelerate analytics and artificial intelligence model development.

RepRisk Data Made Available to Bloomberg Clients

Bloomberg clients can now access RepRisk’s business conduct and ESG risk data, with Data License and Terminal subscribers able to gain insights into more than 100 risk factors across 28,000 companies.

Switzerland-based RepRisk’s business conduct and ESG risk information is updated daily and integrated into Bloomberg’s data pool that feeds clients’ analytics and other processes.

Snowflake Opens Regional Headquarters in Saudi Arabia

Data cloud giant Snowflake has opened a Middle East regional headquarters in the Saudi Arabian capital Riyadh.

The company said it would serve the wider Middle East from the new office, taking advantage of the kingdom’s Vision 2030 programme of modernising its tech base.