AlphaSense got $33 mln for financial search engine

AlphaSense, provider of the AlphaSense search engine for financial professionals, today announced that it has secured $33 million in growth capital from Tribeca Venture Partners, Triangle Peak Partners, and Quantum Strategic Partners (a private investment vehicle managed by Soros Fund Management LLC), as well as notable individual investors such as Tom Glocer, formerly CEO of Thomson Reuters. AlphaSense launched its service in 2011 and today serves more than 400 investment firms, banks and corporations globally. AlphaSense will use the new capital for product advancement and for accelerating its growth in serving its core investment research and corporate intelligence markets, as well as its expansion into new market verticals.

AlphaSense provides intelligent search and alerting capability across a vast library of disparate resources giving users an information edge. The AlphaSense search database covers clients’ in-house content alongside thousands of external sources, including more than 1,000 sell-side research providers, and company disclosures covering more than 35,000 public corporations. The professional search functionality leverages sophisticated natural language processing and search technology that streamlines finding and tracking the most relevant information. The efficiency gained from AlphaSense empowers users to save time and make quicker and more informed decisions.

Jack Kokko, CEO and co-founder of AlphaSense, said: “While today’s web search engines provide an enormously valuable service to consumers, finding the right business information across a vast array of disparate content sets remains a painfully manual process for knowledge professionals. We are excited to be solving this major problem that affects millions of professionals every day, and this financing arms us with the resources to continue advancing our product and broadening our market reach. We are grateful for the support and validation of the visionary investors that have committed to backing our business.”

Brian Hirsch, co-founder and Managing Partner of Tribeca Venture Partners, commented: “As a former Wall Street financial analyst, Jack appreciates the potential benefits and consequences of catching or missing a critical piece of information. AlphaSense’s search platform addresses the need for knowledge professionals to quickly find all the data points critical to their work. The company is uniquely positioned to completely revolutionize how knowledge professionals work, proven by its success to date with financial services firms and major corporations. We are excited to be supporting AlphaSense in seizing upon the incredible market opportunity ahead of it.”

Web search engines are designed for broad consumer purposes and do not meet the needs of knowledge professionals in a business setting. According to a study from International Data Corporation, employees spend 36% of each day searching and consolidating information rather than acting on it. Perhaps even more alarming: these workers can only find the information necessary to perform their jobs 56% of the time. One of the primary culprits behind this inefficiency is that knowledge worker search is highly reliant on premium access to content, often requiring subscriptions, leading to a vast volume of material that exists only in disparate pockets. AlphaSense provides access to this information in a central location, and through its intelligent search and natural language algorithms, makes it easy for professionals to find and capitalize on critical data points.

AlphaSense