Colby Howard

Published on May 12, 2024


Featured Article

Retail & eCommerce Data For Investors: Top Alternative Data Providers

In the fast-paced world of retail and eCommerce, investors are increasingly turning to alternative data sources to gain a competitive edge and make informed investment decisions. From transaction and sales data to web traffic and engagement metrics, these diverse datasets provide valuable insights into consumer behavior, market trends, and company performance. As the retail and eCommerce landscape continues to evolve, investors need to stay ahead of the curve by leveraging the most comprehensive and reliable data sources available. In this blog post, we will take a deep dive into the top companies providing retail and eCommerce data for investors, exploring their unique offerings, methodologies, and the ways in which their insights are revolutionizing investment strategies in this dynamic sector.

Stackline

Company Summary

Stackline is a comprehensive connected commerce platform that empowers brands and retailers to optimize their ecommerce performance by providing a suite of tools for market intelligence, shopper journey management, and retail media activation. The company’s Market Intelligence offerings include Shopper OS, a unified mission control for retail performance; insights into sales trends, market share, and shopper behavior; and customer engagement tools such as ratings and reviews, rewards programs, and targeted surveys. Stackline’s Retail Media Technology enables brands to predict and measure their performance across the omnichannel and leverage advanced advertising solutions to create, execute, and analyze campaigns on leading retail media platforms. By combining these capabilities into a single platform, Stackline helps businesses navigate the complexities of connected commerce and drive success in the digital retail landscape.

Key Features For Investors

Stackline offers a comprehensive suite of e-commerce analytics and insights that provide hedge funds and asset managers with valuable alternative data to inform their investment strategies. By leveraging Stackline’s platform, investors gain access to granular, real-time data on consumer behavior, market trends, and competitive dynamics in the rapidly evolving world of online retail.

Key features of Stackline’s offerings that are particularly useful for investors include:

  • Detailed product-level sales and market share data across major e-commerce platforms
  • Real-time tracking of pricing, promotions, and inventory levels for key brands and products
  • Consumer sentiment analysis based on ratings, reviews, and social media mentions
  • Identification of emerging trends and fast-growing product categories
  • Benchmarking of brand performance against competitors and industry averages
  • Customizable dashboards and reports tailored to specific investment strategies and portfolios

By providing this wealth of e-commerce alternative data, Stackline empowers hedge funds and asset managers to uncover unique insights, validate investment theses, and make more informed decisions in the dynamic retail sector. The platform’s real-time nature and granular detail enable investors to stay ahead of the curve and capitalize on opportunities that traditional financial data sources may overlook.

Improving Investment Decisions

Stackline’s e-commerce analytics platform provides hedge funds and asset managers with valuable alternative data to enhance their investment strategies and decision-making processes. By leveraging Stackline’s comprehensive insights into online retail trends, consumer behavior, and competitive dynamics, investors can gain a deeper understanding of the companies and sectors they are interested in, uncovering potential opportunities and risks that traditional financial data may not reveal.

Stackline empowers investors to:

  • Assess the e-commerce performance and market share of companies across various online platforms, identifying leaders, laggards, and emerging players
  • Analyze product-level sales data to gauge demand trends, monitor the success of new launches, and identify fast-growing categories
  • Benchmark companies against their competitors to understand relative strengths, weaknesses, and growth potential
  • Monitor shifts in consumer preferences and sentiment through reviews, ratings, and social media data, anticipating potential impacts on company performance
  • Incorporate real-time e-commerce data into quantitative models and investment research processes to validate theses and make more informed decisions

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Profitero

Company Summary

Profitero is a global eCommerce analytics company that provides brands with a comprehensive suite of intelligence-driven solutions to accelerate online sales growth. By processing vast amounts of product data daily across 1,200+ retailers in 70+ countries, Profitero offers actionable insights to help brands optimize their digital shelf presence, track competitor sales and market share, monitor pricing and availability, and improve retail media performance. The company’s platform also includes an Open Commerce Ecosystem for seamless data integration and a chat-based AI assistant, Ask Profitero, to democratize data access. Trusted by leading brands such as General Mills, L’Oreal, and Samsung, Profitero empowers its clients to make data-driven decisions and drive measurable ROI in the rapidly evolving eCommerce landscape.

Key Features For Investors

Profitero provides a comprehensive suite of eCommerce analytics and insights that offer significant value to hedge funds and asset managers seeking alternative data to inform their investment decisions. By collecting and analyzing real-time data from over 8,000 retailer websites and marketplaces across 50 countries, Profitero enables investors to closely monitor the digital shelf presence, competitive positioning, and performance of brands and products in the rapidly growing eCommerce space.

Key features of Profitero’s offering that are particularly useful for investors include:

  • Granular, SKU-level data on pricing, assortment, availability, and sales rank for millions of products, allowing investors to track the performance of individual items and brands
  • Competitive intelligence on market share, pricing strategies, promotional activities, and assortment changes, providing a holistic view of the competitive landscape
  • Category and brand-level insights identifying top-performing products, pricing trends, and growth opportunities in specific verticals and consumer segments
  • Attribution analysis linking eCommerce metrics to financial performance indicators, helping investors assess the impact of online sales on overall company health
  • Custom research and analysis services, including data feeds and consulting, tailored to the unique needs and focus areas of each investor

Improving Investment Decisions

Profitero’s eCommerce analytics platform provides hedge funds and asset managers with a wealth of alternative data to enhance their investment research and decision-making processes. By leveraging Profitero’s granular, real-time insights into online product performance, competitive dynamics, and consumer behavior across a wide range of retailers and markets, investors can gain a deeper understanding of the companies and brands they are interested in.

Profitero’s data empowers investors to:

  • Monitor the online sales performance, market share, and growth of companies and brands, identifying potential opportunities or risks
  • Assess the effectiveness of a company’s pricing, promotion, and assortment strategies compared to competitors
  • Analyze category-level trends and consumer preferences to identify emerging opportunities or potential disruptions
  • Evaluate the impact of new product launches, distribution changes, and other key events on a company’s online performance
  • Incorporate real-time eCommerce data into quantitative models and investment frameworks to enhance the accuracy and timeliness of investment decisions

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Commerce IQ

Company Summary

CommerceIQ is a leading retail ecommerce management platform that empowers consumer brands to achieve profitable market share growth through intelligent automation. By integrating sales operations, retail media, digital shelf analytics, and supply chain management into a unified solution, CommerceIQ enables ecommerce teams to maximize their market presence and drive sales. The platform’s AI-driven capabilities help marketing professionals optimize retail media and advertising strategies, sales leaders achieve omnichannel growth targets, supply chain managers streamline operations, and brand managers elevate their brand presence. With over 2,200 brands leveraging its tools to manage incremental sales, category market share, and unit profitability through online retailers, CommerceIQ applies machine learning and automation across key functions to boost share-of-voice, minimize out-of-stock situations, and prevent revenue leakage.

Key Features For Investors

CommerceIQ provides a wealth of e-commerce data and analytics that offer valuable insights for investors focused on the retail and consumer goods sectors. By leveraging AI and machine learning to analyze real-time data from major online retailers, CommerceIQ enables hedge funds and asset managers to assess the performance, market positioning, and growth potential of publicly traded companies in these industries.

Key features of CommerceIQ’s data that investors find useful include:

  • Detailed market share and competitive insights across e-commerce categories
  • Sales performance metrics, revenue trends, and growth rates for specific brands
  • Consumer behavior analytics, including search trends, product reviews, and sentiment analysis
  • Supply chain efficiency and inventory management insights
  • Predictive analytics and forecasting for future sales performance and market trends

Improving Investment Decisions

CommerceIQ’s e-commerce management platform provides a wealth of alternative data that can be leveraged by hedge funds and asset managers to make more informed investment decisions in the retail and consumer goods sectors. By analyzing real-time data from major online retailers, CommerceIQ offers insights into market trends, competitive dynamics, and consumer behavior that can enhance investors’ understanding of the companies they are interested in.

CommerceIQ’s data empowers investors to:

  • Assess the market share and competitive positioning of brands within specific e-commerce categories, identifying potential investment opportunities or risks
  • Analyze sales performance, revenue trends, and growth rates to gauge the financial health and potential of companies
  • Gain insights into consumer preferences, sentiment, and emerging trends through the analysis of search data, product reviews, and social media activity
  • Evaluate the efficiency of a company’s supply chain and inventory management practices, which can impact long-term financial performance
  • Leverage predictive analytics and forecasting to anticipate future market trends, sales performance, and potential disruptions, aiding in risk management and investment strategy optimization

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Retailstat

Company Summary

RetailStat is a comprehensive retail intelligence provider that offers a wide range of data-driven solutions to support decision-making in the retail sector. By leveraging extensive locational datasets, analytics, and expert guidance, RetailStat enables clients to make informed choices regarding retail site selection, acquisition strategies, underwriting, and credit risk management. The company’s platform delivers real-time alerts on retailer health, risk, opportunities, and competitive data, empowering users to stay ahead of the curve. Additionally, RetailStat’s integration of MTN’s Grocery Sales Data with its Real Estate Intelligence platform allows for deep insights into grocery competition. With a strong focus on quality and client service, RetailStat has established itself as a trusted partner for businesses seeking to refine their portfolio strategies, choose the right locations, and maintain a competitive edge in the retail landscape.

Key Features For Investors

RetailStat provides hedge funds and asset managers with comprehensive retail intelligence and alternative data solutions to support informed decision-making. By leveraging extensive locational datasets, advanced analytics, and expert guidance, RetailStat enables investors to gain unique insights into the retail sector and identify profitable investment opportunities.

Key features of RetailStat’s offerings that investors find valuable include:

  • Real-time alerts on retailer health, risk, opportunities, and competitive landscape
  • Integration of MTN’s Grocery Sales Data with RetailStat’s Real Estate Intelligence platform for deep insights into grocery competition
  • Granular consumer purchasing data, including transaction frequencies, average spending amounts, and consumer preferences across retail sectors
  • Predictive modeling to forecast future market trends based on historical consumer data
  • Customizable reporting tools to tailor data presentations to specific investor needs
  • Competitor performance insights to understand market share dynamics and identify competitive advantages
  • Geographic and demographic data analysis to uncover regional trends influencing market conditions and consumer preferences

Improving Investment Decisions

RetailStat empowers hedge funds and asset managers to make more informed investment decisions by providing comprehensive retail intelligence and alternative data solutions. By leveraging RetailStat’s extensive locational datasets, advanced analytics, and expert guidance, investors gain unique insights into the retail sector, enabling them to identify profitable opportunities, manage risk, and maintain a competitive edge.

RetailStat’s platform offers a range of features that enhance investment decision-making:

  • Real-time alerts on retailer health, risk, opportunities, and competitive landscape
  • Integration of MTN’s Grocery Sales Data with RetailStat’s Real Estate Intelligence platform for deep insights into grocery competition
  • Granular consumer purchasing data, including transaction frequencies, average spending amounts, and consumer preferences across retail sectors
  • Predictive modeling to forecast future market trends based on historical consumer data
  • Customizable reporting tools to tailor data presentations to specific investor needs
  • Competitor performance insights to understand market share dynamics and identify competitive advantages
  • Geographic and demographic data analysis to uncover regional trends influencing market conditions and consumer preferences

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CoreSight

Company Summary

Coresight Research is a prominent research and advisory firm specializing in retail and technology, providing data-driven insights and strategic guidance to clients. Founded in 2018 by renowned global retail analyst Deborah Weinswig, the company has offices in New York, London, Lagos, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Mangalore (India). Coresight Research is known for its expertise in the China market and its Innovator Intelligence platform, which fosters a thriving network of technology entrepreneurs through events, mentorship, and comprehensive report coverage. The firm’s research spans various aspects of the retail industry, including pricing strategies, AI-driven optimization, e-commerce analytics, and loss prevention. Coresight Research’s global team of industry-leading analysts delivers in-depth research and analysis, producing a wealth of essential reports each year to help clients navigate the rapidly evolving retail landscape.

Key Features For Investors

Coresight Research provides a range of data-driven insights and analytics tailored to the needs of investors in the retail and e-commerce space. By leveraging its extensive industry expertise, global research capabilities, and cutting-edge technology, Coresight offers unique perspectives on the rapidly evolving retail landscape.

Key features of Coresight’s offerings that are particularly valuable for hedge funds and asset managers include:

  • Comprehensive coverage of the retail and e-commerce sectors, including in-depth analysis of industry trends, market dynamics, and consumer behavior
  • Real-time tracking of key performance indicators such as foot traffic, sales data, and inventory levels for major retailers and e-commerce platforms
  • Proprietary data sets and analytics tools that enable investors to monitor company performance, assess competitive positioning, and identify potential investment opportunities
  • Customized research reports and advisory services that provide actionable insights and recommendations based on specific investor needs and objectives

Improving Investment Decisions

Coresight Research empowers hedge funds and asset managers to make more informed investment decisions by providing comprehensive, data-driven insights into the retail and e-commerce sectors. The firm’s extensive industry expertise, global research capabilities, and cutting-edge analytics tools enable investors to gain a deeper understanding of market dynamics, consumer behavior, and company performance.

Coresight Research’s alternative data solutions help investors to:

  • Monitor key performance indicators such as foot traffic, sales data, and inventory levels for major retailers and e-commerce platforms in real-time
  • Assess the competitive landscape and identify potential investment opportunities through benchmarking and market share analysis
  • Evaluate the effectiveness of a company’s marketing and advertising strategies by analyzing ad spend, impressions, and conversion metrics
  • Incorporate sector-level trends and consumer insights into investment models to enhance decision-making processes
  • Access customized research reports and advisory services tailored to specific investment objectives and strategies

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Clootrack

Company Summary

Clootrack is an AI-powered customer experience analytics platform that enables businesses to uncover the “why” behind their customer sentiment scores, such as NPS, CSAT, and star ratings. By analyzing billions of customer conversations from various first-party and third-party data sources in real-time, Clootrack provides unbiased, actionable insights into the key drivers of customer satisfaction and loyalty. The platform offers features like comprehensive CX overviews, competitor benchmarking, brand health monitoring, and theme discovery, all without requiring technical setup. Clootrack’s patented AI technology helps over 150 enterprise clients save time, reduce churn, and achieve significant ROI by identifying areas for improvement and guiding growth strategies based on customer feedback.

Key Features For Investors

Clootrack offers a powerful AI-driven platform that analyzes vast amounts of customer feedback data from various sources to provide investors with real-time, actionable insights into consumer sentiment, brand perception, and market trends. By leveraging Clootrack’s data, hedge funds and asset managers can gain a deeper understanding of the competitive landscape, identify potential risks and opportunities, and make more informed investment decisions in the retail and e-commerce sectors.

Key features of Clootrack’s data that investors find valuable include:

  • Real-time monitoring of consumer sentiment across multiple channels, including social media, review sites, and forums
  • AI-powered analysis of unstructured data to uncover key themes, trends, and drivers of customer satisfaction
  • Competitive benchmarking and market share analysis to identify industry leaders and emerging challengers
  • Customizable dashboards and alerts to track specific brands, products, or topics of interest
  • Predictive analytics to anticipate future trends and consumer behavior shifts that may impact investment performance

Improving Investment Decisions

Clootrack’s AI-powered customer experience analytics platform provides hedge funds and asset managers with valuable alternative data to enhance their investment decision-making process. By analyzing vast amounts of customer feedback from various sources in real-time, Clootrack offers investors unbiased insights into consumer sentiment, brand perception, and market trends. This data enables investors to gain a deeper understanding of the competitive landscape, identify potential risks and opportunities, and make more informed investment decisions in the retail and e-commerce sectors.

Clootrack’s data empowers investors to:

  • Monitor consumer sentiment across multiple channels in real-time to identify shifts in brand perception and customer satisfaction
  • Uncover key themes, trends, and drivers of customer sentiment using AI-powered analysis of unstructured data
  • Benchmark companies against competitors and track market share to identify industry leaders and emerging challengers
  • Customize dashboards and alerts to focus on specific brands, products, or topics of interest
  • Leverage predictive analytics to anticipate future trends and consumer behavior shifts that may impact investment performance

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Ascential Edge

Company Summary

Edge by Ascential, part of Ascential Digital Commerce, is a leading provider of digital commerce solutions that help consumer brands grow their market share and drive business across key retail platforms. The company offers a suite of services, including the Edge Digital Shelf and Advisory, which leverages technology and consultancy to help businesses uncover opportunities online, and the Flywheel Commerce Cloud, a comprehensive platform that supports every step of the consumer journey. Edge by Ascential focuses on key areas such as go-to-market strategy, digital content, retailer insights, omni-channel media strategy, and performance optimization, providing full-service strategy and execution on major marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart, and TikTok. With offices in Europe, North America, and Asia, and a team of experts spanning over 6 countries, the company is well-equipped to help businesses succeed in the digital commerce sector.

Key Features For Investors

Edge by Ascential provides a comprehensive suite of digital commerce solutions and alternative data that empower investors to make more informed decisions in the retail and e-commerce space. By leveraging Edge’s data, analytics, and expert insights, hedge funds and asset managers can gain a deeper understanding of consumer behavior, market trends, and competitive dynamics.

Key features and data points that investors find valuable include:

  • Detailed product and pricing data across major online retailers and marketplaces
  • Real-time monitoring of brand performance, market share, and category trends
  • Competitive intelligence on assortment, pricing strategies, and promotional activity
  • Consumer sentiment analysis and reviews data to gauge product reception
  • Supply chain and inventory data to identify potential stock issues or opportunities
  • Predictive analytics to forecast demand, sales, and market share shifts
  • Customized reporting and alerts tailored to specific investment criteria and watchlists

By integrating Edge’s alternative data into their research and modeling processes, investors can uncover unique insights, validate investment theses, and identify emerging opportunities in the rapidly evolving retail and e-commerce landscape. This granular, real-time data provides a significant edge over traditional sources and enables more agile and informed decision-making.

Improving Investment Decisions

Edge by Ascential empowers hedge funds and asset managers to make more informed investment decisions by providing comprehensive digital commerce data, analytics, and insights. The company’s suite of solutions enables investors to gain a deeper understanding of the rapidly evolving e-commerce landscape, identify emerging trends, and uncover potential opportunities or risks.

Edge by Ascential helps investors enhance their decision-making processes through:

  • Granular, real-time data on product performance, pricing, and market share across major online retailers and marketplaces
  • Competitive intelligence and benchmarking to assess a company’s positioning and strategic initiatives in the digital commerce space
  • Consumer sentiment analysis and review data to gauge product reception and identify potential demand drivers or red flags
  • Predictive analytics to forecast sales, market share shifts, and category trends, enabling proactive investment strategies
  • Customizable reporting and alerts tailored to specific investment criteria, allowing for more targeted and efficient research processes

By integrating Edge by Ascential’s alternative data into their investment frameworks, hedge funds and asset managers can gain a more comprehensive and timely view of the digital commerce sector. This enables them to validate investment theses, monitor portfolio companies, and identify new opportunities with greater precision and agility, ultimately driving better investment outcomes in a fast-paced and competitive market.

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GRIPS

Company Summary

Grips is a transaction intelligence platform that empowers eCommerce retailers, brands, and category managers with actionable insights derived from data analytics and market intelligence. The platform offers a suite of tools to help businesses benchmark their performance against competitors, monitor industry trends, and optimize their strategies in real-time. By leveraging features such as competitor metrics analysis, daily tracking, sub-category trend exploration, and brand performance assessment, Grips enables clients to identify growth opportunities, uncover winning strategies, and make data-driven decisions to enhance their market positioning and revenue. The company’s comprehensive solution provides valuable insights across retailer, category, and brand views, ultimately helping businesses stay ahead in the dynamic eCommerce landscape.

Key Features For Investors

Grips provides a comprehensive suite of tools and analytics that empower eCommerce retailers, brands, and category managers with actionable insights to optimize their strategies and performance. By leveraging transaction data, market intelligence, and advanced analytics, Grips offers a powerful platform for investors to gain a competitive edge in the rapidly evolving eCommerce landscape.

Key features of Grips’ data and analytics that investors find valuable include:

  • Benchmarking and competitive intelligence: Grips enables investors to compare the performance of retailers, brands, and categories against industry peers, identifying leaders, laggards, and potential investment opportunities.
  • Real-time monitoring of trends and market dynamics: The platform offers daily tracking of key metrics, allowing investors to stay on top of emerging trends, shifts in consumer behavior, and changes in market conditions.
  • Granular insights into sub-categories and brands: Investors can drill down into specific sub-categories and brands to assess their growth potential, market share, and competitive positioning.
  • Attribution analysis and customer journey mapping: Grips provides insights into the customer journey, helping investors understand the factors driving sales, loyalty, and lifetime value across different channels and touchpoints.
  • Predictive analytics and scenario modeling: The platform’s advanced analytics capabilities enable investors to forecast future performance, identify risks and opportunities, and simulate the impact of different strategies and investments.

Improving Investment Decisions

Grips empowers hedge funds and asset managers to make better-informed investment decisions by providing a comprehensive suite of tools and analytics derived from transaction data, market intelligence, and advanced analytics. The platform offers granular insights into retailer, category, and brand performance, enabling investors to identify growth opportunities, assess competitive dynamics, and optimize their portfolios.

By leveraging Grips’ alternative data and analytics, investors can:

  • Benchmark portfolio companies against industry peers to identify leaders, laggards, and potential investment opportunities
  • Monitor real-time trends and market dynamics to stay ahead of emerging threats and opportunities
  • Analyze sub-category and brand performance to uncover hidden growth potential and inform investment strategies
  • Leverage predictive analytics and scenario modeling to forecast future performance and simulate the impact of different investment decisions
  • Incorporate transaction data and customer journey insights into investment research and due diligence processes to gain a competitive edge

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Prosper Insights & Analytics

Company Summary

Prosper Insights & Analytics is a leading provider of high-quality, accurate, zero-party consumer data that empowers businesses to enhance their marketing ROI, improve sales forecasts, strengthen customer relationships, and leverage unique predictive analytics for better decision-making. With a robust dataset spanning over 20 years and 2.5 million survey respondents, Prosper Insights & Analytics enables clients to create detailed customer personas based on consumer intentions, attitudes, and behaviors, allowing them to develop strategies that accurately reflect demand and drive revenue. By integrating proprietary data with internal and third-party sources, businesses can gain a comprehensive, forward-looking view of consumer spending plans, behaviors, and media influences, ultimately enabling them to make data-driven decisions to optimize their business development strategies and deliver measurable results.

Key Features For Investors

Prosper Insights & Analytics provides a wealth of valuable consumer insights and analytics that empower hedge funds and asset managers to make data-driven investment decisions. By leveraging Prosper’s extensive consumer survey data, which covers over 70,000 respondents each month, investors gain access to a comprehensive view of consumer behavior, preferences, and intentions across various industries and sectors.

Key features of Prosper’s data that investors find particularly useful include:

  • Consumer confidence and sentiment metrics, which serve as leading indicators of economic health and future spending patterns
  • Purchasing intentions data, allowing investors to forecast demand for specific products or services and identify potential growth opportunities
  • Brand preference and loyalty insights, enabling investors to assess the competitive landscape and market share of companies within their investment universe
  • Media consumption habits, which can inform decisions related to the advertising and media sectors, as well as help investors understand how consumers are influenced by various media channels

Improving Investment Decisions

Prosper Insights & Analytics empowers hedge funds and asset managers to make better-informed investment decisions by providing comprehensive consumer data and insights. The company’s extensive survey data, which covers over 70,000 respondents each month, offers a detailed view of consumer behavior, preferences, and intentions across various industries and sectors.

Prosper’s data enables investors to:

  • Assess consumer confidence and sentiment, which serve as leading indicators of economic health and future spending patterns
  • Forecast demand for specific products or services based on purchasing intentions data, helping to identify potential growth opportunities
  • Evaluate the competitive landscape and market share of companies within their investment universe using brand preference and loyalty insights
  • Understand how consumers are influenced by various media channels through media consumption habit data, informing decisions related to the advertising and media sectors
  • Enhance investment research and decision-making processes by incorporating Prosper’s data into quantitative models and analysis

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ManagementTrack

ManagementTrack by Paragon Intel is the leading source of analysis on executives. Hedge Funds and Asset Managers rely on ManagementTrack for the management portion of any investment thesis. Predictive ratings, verified data, and proprietary interviews with high level former peers of executives allow professional investors to understand how the people leading a company will impact its performance.

Learn more here: https://paragonintel.com/management-track-platform/

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