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Alternative data is increasingly being used in private markets, including private equity, real estate, credit, and infrastructure, across deal origination, due diligence, and post-acquisition value creation and risk mitigation. Initially, interest in alternative data began when companies wanted additional information around digital market spend comparisons and reputation and social media review comparisons.

Employment data has been the 4th most popular alternative data category on the Eagle Alpha data discovery platform over the past 12 months, seeing a 40% YoY increase in the number of employment datasets onboarded. Job listings data provide asset managers holistic information on total employee count, job functions, skills, gender, and tenure which can then be used to measure firm performance, hiring strategy, employee turnover, headcount growth, and estimate expenses. Employment data can also take the form of employee profiles and company reviews which can help measure employee perception and sentiments, thus providing a good use case not only for firms dealing with public equities but also for private equity in the form of deal origination analysis and due diligence.

Cryptocurrency, or “crypto” as it has become widely referred to, has been one of the quickest moving trends in the investment space of late, with retail and institutional investors throwing their hats in the ring. While traditional markets must obtain all their information from external entities, through conventional channels like Bloomberg or via alternative sources such as satellite and geolocation, cryptocurrency provides the opportunity to also look at global internal data. Thanks to blockchain technology, you can get real-time statistics for anything on-chain.

ESG is the hottest topic in the data world right now. Regulators and asset owners are putting increasing pressure on funds to invest in a more environmentally friendly and socially responsible way. This provides a great opportunity to funds who offer ESG solutions and we have seen massive growth in the AUM directed to funds claiming to incorporate ESG factors into their investment process.

Emerging Markets Asia, and China, in particular, have become a hotbed of activity for alternative data. At Eagle Alpha, we are seeing rocketing demand for data from the region. Initially, this demand was from international managers looking to better understand dynamics on the ground in the region, but increasingly we are seeing local managers show more interest in alternative data. We are seeing the supply side of the market wakening up to this increased thirst for data. The data market in EM Asia is growing in size and sophistication.

Inflation forecasts for 2022 saw a steady increase across Europe last year, driven in part by bottlenecks in supply chains, and rising energy and food prices. For EPFR-tracked Europe Regional bond funds, the extent of this peak in consumer price expectations across European countries has been reflected by a more pronounced downturn in Active vs Passive fund positioning. Active fund manager sentiment towards countries with higher forecasts, such as the UK, has become more bearish compared against 2020 end-of year allocations. In this example, the spread between these fund groups dropped from +2.9%to -10.5%.

Over the past two years, alternative data sources have proven to offer hugely effective and timely insights for companies wanting to understand the impact of Covid-19. Coming into the winter holiday season, and following on from Black Friday and Thanksgiving, the cracks in the global supply chain have proven to have a devastating impact on commercial sectors, but also disrupting other sectors via a knock-on-effect. Due to this, many industries are now turning to alternative data to further understand this impact.

Welcome to our “2021 Year In Review”. Given Eagle Alpha’s role as the leading alternative data aggregator and advisor, this year’s review will be both insightful into the major themes we observed in 2021 and, as importantly, be inspirational and thought-provoking in how you approach alternative data in 2022.