As the US and European alternative data market continues on its path to maturity, we discuss where to find the next frontier of alternative data. In this report, we look at Latin America and Asia, investigating the startup landscape, fundraising, regulatory trends and technology adoption across the regions to identify existing data panels and future sources of alternative data.

SETTING THE STAGE

It is commonplace for innovative ideas to take hold in the developed world first: Alibaba (BABA.US) and Mercado Libre were both founded five years after Amazon (AMZN.US); in the mobility space, Didi and 99 were founded three years after Uber (UBER.US). This is often due to:

• Greater access to private and state-sponsored support
• Stronger institutions – which can enforce IP law
• Access to a more educated workforce

This laggard also seems to be the case for data – emerging markets have only recently begun digitalizing and adopting big data into decision-making processes, similar to their US and European counterparts five years ago.

As digitalization and big data pick up steam in these regions, we believe it will only be a matter of time for data monetization to make its place, and establish the emerging markets as the next frontier of alternative data.