Alternative data Market – Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, Segmented by Data Type (Web and Social Media Data, Satellite and Geolocation Data, Financial and Transaction Data, Consumer Behavior Data, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Others), By Delivery Model (Subscription-Based, Pay-Per-Use or Pay-Per-Access and Data as a Service (DaaS)), By End-User Industry (Financial Services and Investment Firms, Hedge Funds and Asset Management, Private Equity and Venture Capital, Healthcare and Life Sciences), By Region, Competition 2021-2031F

Forecast Period	2027-2031
Market Size (2025)	USD 4.45 Billion
CAGR (2026-2031)	37.31%
Fastest Growing Segment	Private Equity and Venture Capital
Largest Market	North America
Market Size (2031)	USD 29.82 Billion

Market Overview

The Global Alternative data Market will grow from USD 4.45 Billion in 2025 to USD 29.82 Billion by 2031 at a 37.31% CAGR. The Global Alternative Data Market encompasses non-traditional information sets derived from digital footprints, such as satellite imagery, social media sentiment, and credit card transaction logs, which investors utilize to gain unique economic insights. The expansion of this sector is primarily driven by the diminishing alpha available through conventional financial statements and the enhanced capacity of artificial intelligence to process vast unstructured datasets. These factors compel asset managers to integrate novel information sources to differentiate their strategies and achieve superior risk-adjusted returns.

Despite this momentum, strict data privacy regulations and compliance requirements present a substantial challenge to broader market scalability. Navigating complex legal frameworks regarding material non-public information and consumer privacy laws often increases operational costs and legal risks for data consumers. According to the CFA Institute, in 2024, 64% of investment professionals indicated using alternative data, reflecting strong demand that persists notwithstanding these regulatory hurdles.

Key Market Drivers

Rising Institutional Demand for Alpha-Generating Investment Insights acts as a primary market accelerator as asset managers seek to outperform benchmarks in an increasingly efficient market. With traditional financial data offering diminishing competitive advantages, funds are aggressively increasing capital allocation toward non-traditional datasets to identify idiosyncratic risks and opportunities. This trend is quantified by industry analysis; according to Lowenstein Sandler, February 2025, in the 'Alternative Data Poised for More Growth in the Age of AI' report, 94% of current alternative data users plan to increase their budgets allocated to these resources. This surge in financial commitment underscores the transition of alternative data from a niche novelty to a critical component of institutional investment processes. Additionally, according to Lowenstein Sandler, in 2025, 67% of surveyed professionals indicated they are currently using alternative data, highlighting the widespread adoption across the sector.

The Accelerated Integration of Generative AI and Machine Learning Technologies serves as the second pivotal driver, resolving the historical bottleneck of processing vast, unstructured information streams. Advanced algorithms now enable the rapid synthesis of disjointed data points—such as geolocation pings and web-scraped content—into actionable signals, significantly lowering the barrier to entry for data consumption. This technological synergy allows firms to extract value from raw data at unprecedented speeds. According to Lowenstein Sandler, February 2025, in the 'Alternative Data Poised for More Growth in the Age of AI' report, 61% of investment professionals are using AI to help with investments and trading. This integration ensures that as AI capabilities mature, the utility and commercial viability of alternative data will expand proportionally across the financial sector.

Download Free Sample Report

Key Market Challenges

Strict data privacy regulations and compliance requirements act as a primary constraint on the scalability of the Global Alternative Data Market. As asset managers seek to leverage non-traditional information, the complexity of adhering to diverse legal frameworks regarding material non-public information and consumer privacy significantly increases operational costs. These legal obligations compel firms to implement rigorous and time-consuming due diligence processes to ensure all ingested data is compliant, which directly delays the deployment of new strategies and erodes the speed advantage that alternative data intends to provide.

This regulatory friction effectively creates a bottleneck for market expansion. Investment firms are becoming increasingly cautious about the technologies required to process these unstructured datasets, fearing that the methods used to harvest data could violate evolving privacy standards. This cautious approach is reflected in recent industry data regarding the tools essential for this market. According to the Investment Adviser Association, in 2025, 57% of compliance professionals identified artificial intelligence and predictive analytics as their top compliance concern. Since these technologies are the primary engines for processing vast alternative datasets, such heightened regulatory scrutiny limits the ability of investors to fully utilize these resources, thereby stalling broader market adoption.

Key Market Trends

The Emergence of Synthetic Data for AI Model Training represents a transformative shift in the market, addressing the scarcity of high-quality, privacy-compliant historical datasets required for advanced analytics. As financial institutions increasingly deploy Generative AI, they face critical shortages of real-world data for training robust models without violating consumer privacy or data residency laws. Synthetic data—artificially generated information that mirrors the statistical properties of real-world assets—enables firms to simulate rare market events and train algorithms on "what-if" scenarios that historical data cannot provide. This utility is empirically supported; according to the CFA Institute, July 2025, in the 'Synthetic Data in Investment Management' report, the use of synthetic financial text data improved the performance (F1-score) of a large language model fine-tuned for financial sentiment analysis by nearly 10 percentage points.

Simultaneously, the Expansion of Alternative Data Usage to Corporate Strategy and Retail is redefining the user base, moving beyond hedge funds to private equity and corporate decision-makers. This trend is characterized by the deepening integration of non-traditional signals into fundamental operational strategies, where data is used not just for trading alpha but for enhancing portfolio company performance and strategic planning. The market is witnessing a transition from experimental adoption to core reliance on these datasets for long-term value creation. This deepening dependence is highlighted by industry surveys; according to Lowenstein Sandler, February 2025, in the 'Alternative Data Poised for More Growth in the Age of AI' report, the proportion of investment professionals reporting "significant use" of alternative data rose to 54%, marking a distinct shift from sporadic usage to an essential strategic imperative.

Segmental Insights

The Private Equity and Venture Capital segment represents the fastest-growing category within the global alternative data market. This expansion is driven by the limited availability of traditional financial disclosures for private companies, which necessitates the use of non-traditional sources for effective deal sourcing and due diligence. Additionally, increased focus on valuation transparency by institutions such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission encourages firms to utilize external data to validate investment decisions. Consequently, fund managers leverage these inputs to reduce risk and gain objective insights when evaluating early-stage and unlisted opportunities.

Regional Insights

North America maintains a dominant position in the global alternative data market, driven by the widespread adoption of data analytics among hedge funds and asset management firms. The region hosts a high concentration of market vendors providing diverse datasets, which supports strong demand from financial institutions seeking distinct investment signals. Additionally, the regulatory framework established by the Securities and Exchange Commission provides necessary compliance standards, reducing legal uncertainties for investors using external data sources. This combination of high institutional demand, provider availability, and regulatory clarity ensures North America remains the central region for market development.

Recent Developments

• In November 2025, the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) established a strategic partnership with Nasdaq to distribute institutional-grade private markets intelligence. Under this agreement, LSEG integrated Nasdaq’s private fund datasets and insights into its Workspace and Datafeeds platforms. The collaboration enabled investors to access comprehensive information on fund performance, hedge funds, and deal-level benchmarks alongside LSEG’s existing public market data. This initiative was designed to increase transparency in the private investment landscape, providing asset managers with enhanced tools to streamline workflows, optimize portfolios, and make more informed capital allocation decisions across global markets.
• In March 2025, Similarweb released a new solution called App Intelligence, which integrated mobile app analytics with its existing web data platform. This product launch provided businesses and investors with a comprehensive view of digital performance by combining insights on app downloads, engagement, retention, and audience demographics. The unified platform offered coverage of millions of applications across iOS and Android ecosystems, enabling users to perform deeper competitive analysis and identify emerging growth opportunities. The strategic enhancement aimed to deliver a holistic perspective on the digital landscape, supporting data-driven decision-making for market research and user acquisition.
• In November 2024, YipitData launched a suite of new data products designed to provide detailed insights into brand performance across European and Chinese markets. The expansion introduced granular analysis for major global companies, covering sectors such as luxury goods and sportswear. These new datasets enabled investors to track retail sales, consumer spending patterns, and merchant-level performance in regions that were previously difficult to analyze with such precision. The initiative addressed a growing demand for reliable cross-market intelligence, allowing clients to evaluate international consumer trends and refine their investment strategies with high-quality alternative data.
• In May 2024, Bloomberg announced the integration of its proprietary Bloomberg Second Measure transaction data analytics into its Data License service. This development allowed quantitative researchers and data professionals to access granular consumer transaction insights alongside traditional enterprise content. The offering provided data on performance metrics for over 3,000 public and private companies, derived from billions of credit and debit card transactions. By making this alternative dataset available through the Data License, the company aimed to streamline workflows for investors seeking to identify market trends and analyze consumer behavior with greater depth and efficiency.

Key Market Players

• Bloomberg LP
• FactSet Research Systems Inc.
• S&P Global Inc.
• Thomson Reuters Corporation
• IHS Markit Ltd.
• QUANDL INC.
• YIPITDATA INC
• Eagle Alpha Ltd
• 1010data Inc
• Thinknum Alternative Data Inc

By Delivery Model	By End-User Industry	By Region
Subscription-Based Pay-Per-Use or Pay-Per-Access and Data as a Service (DaaS)	Financial Services and Investment Firms Hedge Funds and Asset Management Private Equity and Venture Capital Healthcare and Life Sciences	North America Europe Asia Pacific South America Middle East & Africa

Report Scope:

In this report, the Global Alternative data Market has been segmented into the following categories, in addition to the industry trends which have also been detailed below:

• Alternative data Market, By Delivery Model:

• Subscription-Based
• Pay-Per-Use or Pay-Per-Access and Data as a Service (DaaS)

• Alternative data Market, By End-User Industry:

• Financial Services and Investment Firms
• Hedge Funds and Asset Management
• Private Equity and Venture Capital
• Healthcare and Life Sciences

• Alternative data Market, By Region:

• North America
• United States
• Canada
• Mexico
• Europe
• France
• United Kingdom
• Italy
• Germany
• Spain
• Asia Pacific
• China
• India
• Japan
• Australia
• South Korea
• South America
• Brazil
• Argentina
• Colombia
• Middle East & Africa
• South Africa
• Saudi Arabia
• UAE