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Quantopian to manage USD250m for Point72 Ventures

Quantopian is to manage up to USD250 million of investment capital for Steve Cohen’s venture capital operation Point72 Ventures.

Quantopian offers a free platform where an online community of over 85,000 members from 180 countries can create institutional-quality investment algorithms.
 
Investment algorithms created on Quantopian’s platform by members will be used to manage the funds from Cohen. Each author of a selected algorithm will receive a royalty based on the performance of his or her strategy.
 
“This is a watershed moment for the entire industry. Steve Cohen, one of the most storied and successful investors, will be supporting investment algorithms produced by Quantopian’s community,” says John “Fawce” Fawcett, CEO of Quantopian. “These funds will permit Quantopian to make larger allocations and therefore pay larger royalties to authors of profitable algorithms. I expect this major incentive to galvanize both existing and new members, and propel everyone to new levels of creativity.”
 
“The scarce resource in quantitative investing is talent,” says Matthew Granade, the leader of Point72 Ventures. “Quantopian has demonstrated an innovative approach to finding that talent.
 
This relationship demonstrates the unique advantages offered by partnering with Point72 Ventures. In addition to receiving investment capital, Quantopian is getting strategic advice that it can’t get from any other investor and Point72 will benefit from an ocean of untapped talent.”
 
Cohen’s commitment, a portion of which is contingent on Quantopian meeting certain performance metrics, represents the first major commitment of funds for Quantopian to manage using its members’ algorithms.
 
Point72 Ventures will also be making an investment in Quantopian. Quantopian has previously received venture investments from venture firms including Bessemer Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures and Spark Capital.
 
Quantopian’s portfolio of investment algorithms is selected from the more than 400,000 algorithms written by its community of over 85,000 members, including professors, finance professionals, research scientists, developers, and students. By offering an institutional quality platform online and for free, with access to extensive data, Quantopian gives anyone the ability to create and test investment algorithms – and be rewarded for their work.
 
Quantopian evaluates the performance of each algorithm on its platform and makes allocations to selected algorithms based on factors including return, risk, style, capacity, and interaction effects. The authors of the selected algorithms receive a share of the profits generated from their investment strategies.

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