Clare Flynn Levy of Essentia Analytics -the year in review

In May 2015, we had the pleasure of profiling Clare Flynn Levy, of Essentia Analytics.  A year on, we invited her to give us an update of what’s been happening over at Essentia.

Over to Clare:

You may recall that Essentia makes software that helps human investors prove – and improve – their investment skill.  It’s a tool for professional fund managers, analysts and asset owners – a data-driven feedback loop, much like that which athletes use to win medals.

One year on, our mission is exactly the same – what’s changed is the investment management industry’s attitude toward what we do at Essentia. Although it’s a common sense approach, the fund management industry is very set in its ways, and the old guard is not necessarily keen on lifting its own bonnet to shine a light on the engine. But the last 12 months has been an unprecedented period for corporate change within traditional active management firms, and that’s just the beginning.  A lot of these firms have brought in a new generation of senior management who are pressing the issue of innovation at the board level, which is really exciting.

Today, we count amongst our clients 10 major investment management firms -evenly split between hedge funds and traditional active managers – and our pipeline is very strong.  Our early clients have now anniversaried with us, and their results have been excellent.  Although everyone knows that if you help someone focus on what matters and measure their progress, they are likely to perform better, in our first two years we were constantly asked whether we could prove that “Essentia works” – now we can.

In order to ensure that we provide our clients the very best service possible as we grow, we’ve recently added 2 new Senior Consultants to our team – both former Portfolio Managers. In the meantime, we’re leveraging our platform to produce products for other investment industry players, from asset owners to retail investors.

2016 is looking like it’s going to be a transformative year for Essentia.

Our thanks to Clare for this update.  We are delighted to learn that things are going well over there – and look forward to tracking their success in the years to come.

To reach out to Clare, you can find her on LinkedIn here – or you can tweet Essentia on @essentia_sbi