NASDAQ ACQUIRES QUANDL TO ADVANCE THE USE OF ALTERNATIVE DATA

The acquisition of Quandl by Nasdaq marks a key milestone in our journey with this exciting company over the last several years.

We connected with Tammer Kammel and Abraham Thomas, founders of Quandl, in 2014 and were impressed with their vision. Thomas and Tammer had a very simple goal of building a platform to cleanse available public and private data and organize it so it is usable by anyone, in effect, democratizing access to data. After a series of meetings, we were fortunate to partner with Quandl starting in 2015. It has been a journey of discovery, learning and just plain fun as the company evolved through constant experiments, iterations and solutions to customer needs. Tammer and Thomas showed time and again that great leaders have the courage to take three steps back when needed to clear the path for future progress.

For years, millions of data sets have been locked up in various government and non-government organizations and corporate repositories. Much of this data is free to access, but not readily usable because it is often incomplete, inconsistent or not properly organized. In addition, companies are collecting proprietary data in the course of running their businesses that can provide unique insight for decision making often in industries that are not even related to their own businesses. Financial services, retailers, ecommerce, telecom, and healthcare providers are some examples of commercial organizations that are generating and collecting vast amounts of very useful data. For effective use and distribution, this data needs to be organized and regularly updated.

Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning technologies require quality data for their proper functioning. Use of third party data presents several challenges. Data can come as files, objects, and databases or in a variety of other forms. AI and Deep Learning are increasing being deployed for real-time or near real-time decision-making. It is imperative that freshest data be available to help drive optimal decisions. Quandl manages data collections in many formats and allows users to access updated data on command, at fixed intervals or based on certain triggers.

In February 2017, I wrote a blog, “Data is the new IP”, positing the importance of data to the economy, the way we live, the way we work and to geopolitics. Three months later, The Economist published an article effectively saying that, Data today is like Oil was a century back. Since then the phrase, “Data is the oil of the digital economy” has entered the standard technology parlance.

Data is not oil, it is better. Oil is depletive while data is multiplicative. If I have a barrel of oil I can only give to one person. As more oil is discovered, the value of each barrel of oil goes down. Data is just the opposite. I can share the same data with any number of users. As I share data, users often discover unique features in the data and its value can go up for everyone. In many situations as more data is collected the value of each piece of data is enhanced. For example, a thousand mapped DNA sequences may not be of much value, while millions of mapped sequences may help accelerate drug discovery.

Data is meant to be shared. Quandl powers the distribution of data in manners that enables its most effectively use.

We believe that Quandl platform will play a bigger role, as data increasingly becomes the driver for decision-making. Nasdaq understands data and in Nasdaq Quandl has found an exceptional partner that will help it realize the full potential of what it has built. Nasdaq, hopefully Quandl will help you enhance your presence as a data player and will even help you expand beyond the financial services space.

We will be cheering for the Quandl team from the sidelines.