The proliferation of mobile devices, low-cost sensors, and technologies like AI-assisted image-processing have led to an explosion of new and potential data sources. Hedge funds and other investors see value in these non-traditional datasets to mine predictive insights, which might put them ahead of the rest of the pack.
After Foursquare’s recent accurate prediction about Chipotle earnings miss — based on the app’s aggregated foot-traffic data — we can expect more investors to look closely alternative data sources. We mapped out startups (and exited companies) working to provide investors and other clients with non-traditional data. See below for the full infographic.
In economics, capital is a produced good, as opposed to a natural resource, that is necessary for the production of another good or service. Data capital is the recorded information necessary to produce a good or service. And it can have long-term value just as physical assets, such as buildings and equipment, do. "With data capital, if you know something about your customer or production process, it might be something that yields value over the years," says Erik Brynjolfsson, director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy.
