Refinitiv has made a strategic investment in alternative data platform and marketplace BattleFin and formed a partnership which will enable customers access to alternative datasets across its data platforms, including quantitative data management platform QA Direct in the Cloud. Quants and fundamental analysts will be able to access and test different alternative datasets alongside Refinitiv’s data offerings, such as I/B/E/S Estimates, WorldScope Fundamentals, and StarMineTM Quantitative Models. A sub-set of Refinitiv’s proprietary content will also be made available for testing within BattleFin’s alternative data marketplace Ensemble.

Alternative datasets within Ensemble’s platform will be mapped to Refinitiv’s entity and security identifiers, including PermID. This is to help provide a holistic data workflow, assisting investors, analysts and data scientists efficiently integrate and mine these datasets for signals and leading indicators, as well as find alpha and new investment strategies. Refinitiv’s desktop Eikon will also be integrated with Ensemble to help improve data discovery for analysts and portfolio managers.

The partnership will complement Refinitiv’s current alternative data offering available to customers including interactive mapping and commodities, news analytics, and social media sentiment data.

“Demand for alternative datasets continue to rise across the industry as investors look for new ways to achieve alpha and gain an edge on the competition,” says Pradeep Menon, managing director, investing and advisory at Refinitiv. “The integration of BattleFin’s alternative data into Refinitiv’s platforms will save quants and portfolio managers time as they look to efficiently implement alternative data strategies into their investment workflows, creating a holistic data platform to serve the investment community.“

“Financial firms and corporations can leverage alternative data to find insights and make better decisions,” says Tim Harrington, CEO of BattleFin. “Our BattleFin Ensemble platform lets firms source, evaluate, test and purchase alternative data. This partnership with Refinitiv allows firms to access fundamental, reference and alternative data in a streamlined manner, dramatically reducing the friction and pain points that data buyers have faced in the past.”

The BattleFin alternative datasets are set to be available in Refinitiv’s quantitative analytics platform QA Direct in the Cloud and integrated with the desktop Eikon starting from the end of the year.

QA Direct in the Cloud builds upon the industry-leading QA Direct platform, offering a scalable platform to manage, maintain and integrate quantitative analysis and investment data. The platform delivers a robust repository of financial data along with quantitative alpha models and third-party content sets allowing customers to explore how an investment hypothesis performs under a broad range of market conditions. Refinitiv handles continuous content updates in the QA Direct database, designed to ensure system availability and resiliency and remove the administrative burden from customers. Proprietary data can also be integrated to sit along Refinitiv content such as Datastream Pricing (Equity & Index), I/B/E/S Estimates, Worldscope fundamentals, and StarMine Models.