Please welcome Delphia, an investment advisor putting your data to work for you
Meet Delphia, the latest addition to Lerer Hippeau’s portfolio.
HQ: Toronto
Cofounders: Andrew Peek, Dr. Clifton van der Linden, and Cameron Westland
The problem: Consumers create data with every move they make, and more than ever before. Everything from our purchases to how we choose to spend our time creates a footprint. Meanwhile, businesses and corporations have tracked those movements, looking to influence our purchases and derive a profit through targeted ads, for example. But, while consumers are responsible for creating that data, they have yet to see that value returned to them.
Delphia’s solution: Created by a team of academics and data scientists, Delphia is an investment advisor that lets people invest in the stock market by contributing their data. Delphia uses machine learning and social science to study the collective personal data shared by its members to make smart investment decisions with renewable investment capital — helping users get paid for the data they’re already creating. Here’s how: Delphia users connect data sources (like social media accounts and banking history) and answer daily questions about their preferences, trends, and current events. These collective answers become Delphia’s proprietary data source that drives the company’s investment advantage, helping measure public opinion and predict market trends. Through the redistribution of its management fees, Delphia aims to create a viable data dividend for users, without ever selling or sharing that data with third parties.
Origin story: Andrew Peek served as a partner and cofounder of two businesses that sold to Shopify (Jet Cooper and Pilot) and spent some time there before teaming up with Dr. Clifton van der Linden, who was working on a business concept that looked to forecast real-world events like elections. They formed Delphia in 2017 and went through Y Combinator last year to hone their focus. Product and technical expert Cameron Westland, Delphia’s CTO and third cofounder, joined the company in 2018.
Why we’re betting on it: Delphia has attracted an exceptional team comprised of repeat founders, data scientists, technologists, and academics with an ambitious goal: create the first-ever investment advisor to let people invest in the stock market using only their data. Delphia’s mission centers on creating a truly data-advantaged investing strategy based on a growing network of data contributors, democratizing access to the benefits of the most sophisticated investing strategies typically reserved for only ultra-high net-worth individuals. By putting personal data to work for the majority, rather than for technology companies and financial institutions, Delphia aims to return the value of that data back to the source.
Our take: Delphia is bringing a fundamentally new product to market that benefits investors and consumers alike by more directly aligning their interests for the first time. By enabling consumers to invest the value of their data, Delphia is fueling the creation of a new paradigm for wealth creation with a potentially large and promising upside. Delphia’s timing is excellent given the heightened sensitivity around personal data and what our data is being used for, in addition to the growing awareness around the challenge of wealth creation for the majority of the population.
Further reading: “This startup wants to use your data to bet on the market — and cut you in on the profits” via Fast Company
Learn about careers at Delphia.
