Innovation Model

Identifies innovative companies before their long-term competitive advantages are fully reflected in market valuations.

ExtractAlpha Innovation Model identifies companies with strong innovation intensity using proprietary alternative datasets and advanced quantitative research. By analyzing indicators such as patent activity and high-skilled foreign worker visas, the model uncovers businesses making long-term investments in innovation that may not yet be fully reflected in market valuations.

Designed for institutional investors, the Innovation Model delivers daily stock-level signals that complement both quantitative and fundamental investment processes, helping identify differentiated long-term alpha opportunities.

Explore the complete Innovation Model fact sheet, including methodology, key features, coverage, historical performance, and implementation details:

Why the Innovation Model?

Innovation is one of the most important long-term drivers of corporate growth, yet it remains difficult to measure using traditional financial statements alone. Research and development spending, intellectual property, and investments in specialized talent often create value years before they are reflected in earnings or fully appreciated by the market.

The ExtractAlpha Innovation Model applies quantitative techniques to proprietary datasets that capture real-world indicators of innovation activity. Rather than focusing solely on reported financial metrics, the model identifies companies demonstrating sustained investment in future competitive advantages.

The result is a differentiated stock selection signal that helps institutional investors identify innovative businesses with the potential to outperform over longer investment horizons while complementing existing fundamental and quantitative research processes.

FAQs

What is the Innovation Model?

The Innovation Model is an institutional equity signal that measures corporate innovation intensity using proprietary alternative datasets and quantitative models. It is designed to identify companies whose innovation investments may contribute to future stock outperformance.

What data does the Innovation Model analyze?

The model incorporates proprietary datasets covering innovation-related activity, including patent information and high-skilled foreign worker visa data, to evaluate both company-level and industry-level innovation trends.

Who uses the Innovation Model?

The model is designed for institutional investors, including quantitative portfolio managers, discretionary portfolio managers, hedge funds, and asset managers seeking differentiated sources of long-term alpha.

How is the Innovation Model different from traditional financial analysis?

Traditional financial analysis focuses primarily on historical financial results. The Innovation Model evaluates forward-looking indicators of innovation activity, helping investors identify companies building future competitive advantages before those investments are fully reflected in reported financial performance.

How frequently is the Innovation Model updated?

The Innovation Model is delivered as a daily stock-level signal, making it easy to integrate into institutional investment workflows and quantitative research processes.

How can investors use the Innovation Model?

The Innovation Model can be used to generate investment ideas, enhance multi-factor models, validate fundamental research, or identify companies whose long-term innovation potential may be underappreciated by the market.

© 2026 ExtractAlpha.
ExtractAlpha is dedicated to providing unique, curated, actionable datasets to institutional investors. ExtractAlpha applies extensive experience in quantitative analysis to alternative datasets. Rigorously built quantitative models are designed for institutional investors to gain a measurable edge over their competitors. ExtractAlpha’s founding team held senior positions at StarMine, Morgan Stanley PDT, AlphaSense, FactSet, and Multex.

Alan Kwan

Alan joined ExtractAlpha in 2024. He is a tenured associate professor of finance at the University of Hong Kong, where he serves as the program director of the MFFinTech, teaches classes on quantitative trading and big data in finance, and conducts research in finance specializing in big data and alternative datasets. He has published research in prestigious journals and regularly presents at financial conferences. He previously worked in technical and trading roles at DC Energy, Bridgewater Associates, Microsoft and advises several fintech startups. He received his PhD in finance from Cornell and his Bachelors from Dartmouth.

John Chen

John joined ExtractAlpha in 2023 as the Director of Partnerships & Customer Success. He has extensive experience in the financial information services industry, having previously served as a Director of Client Specialist at Refinitiv. John holds dual Bachelor’s degrees in Commerce and Architecture (Design) from The University of Melbourne.

Chloe Miao

Chloe joined ExtractAlpha in 2023. Prior to joining, she was an associate director at Value Search Asia Limited. She earned her Masters of Arts in Global Communications from the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Matija Ratkovic

Matija is a specialist in software sales and customer success, bringing experience from various industries. His career, before sales, includes tech support, software development, and managerial roles. He earned his BSc and Specialist Degree in Electrical Engineering at the University of Montenegro.

Jack Kim

Jack joined ExtractAlpha in 2022. Previously, he spent 20+ years supporting pre- and after-sales activities to drive sales in the Asia Pacific market. He has worked in many different industries including, technology, financial services, and manufacturing, where he developed excellent customer relationship management skills. He received his Bachelor of Business in Operations Management from the University of Technology Sydney.

Perry Stupp

Perry brings more than 20 years of Enterprise Software development, sales and customer engagement experience focused on Fortune 1000 customers. Prior to joining ExtractAlpha as a Technical Consultant, Perry was the founder, President and Chief Customer Officer at Solution Labs Inc. a data analytics company that specialized in the analysis of very large-scale computing infrastructures in place at some of the largest corporate data centers in the world.

Perry Stupp

Perry brings more than 20 years of Enterprise Software development, sales and customer engagement experience focused on Fortune 1000 customers. Prior to joining ExtractAlpha as a Technical Consultant, Perry was the founder, President and Chief Customer Officer at Solution Labs Inc. a data analytics company that specialized in the analysis of very large-scale computing infrastructures in place at some of the largest corporate data centers in the world.

Janette Ho

Janette has 22+ years of leadership and management experience in FinTech and analytics sales and business development in the Asia Pacific region. In addition to expertise in quantitative models, she has worked on risk management, portfolio attribution, fund accounting, and custodian services. Janette is currently head of relationship management at Moody’s Analytics in the Asia-Pacific region, and was formerly Managing Director at State Street, head of sales for APAC Asset Management at Thomson Reuters, and head of Asia for StarMine. She is also a board member at Human Financial, a FinTech firm focused on the Australian superannuation industry.

Leigh Drogen

Leigh founded Estimize in 2011. Prior to Estimize, Leigh ran Surfview Capital, a New York based quantitative investment management firm trading medium frequency momentum strategies. He was also an early member of the team at StockTwits where he worked on product and business development.  Leigh is now the CEO of StarKiller Capital, an institutional investment management firm in the digital asset space.

Andrew Barry

Andrew is the CEO of Human Financial, a technology innovator that is pioneering consumer-led solutions for the superannuation industry. Andrew was previously CEO of Alpha Beta, a global quant hedge fund business. Prior to Alpha Beta he held senior roles in a number of hedge funds globally.

Natallia Brui

Natallia has 7+ years experience as an IT professional. She currently manages our Estimize platform. Natallia earned a BS in Computer & Information Science in Baruch College and BS in Economics from BSEU in Belarus. She has a background in finance, cybersecurity and data analytics.

June Cook

June has a background in B2B sales, market research, and analytics. She has 10 years of sales experience in healthcare, private equity M&A, and the tech industry. She holds a B.B.A. from Temple University and an M.S. in Management and Leadership from Western Governors University.

Jenny Zhou, PhD

Jenny joined ExtractAlpha in 2023. Prior to that, she worked as a quantitative researcher for Chorus, a hedge fund under AXA Investment Managers. Jenny received her PhD in finance from the University of Hong Kong in 2023. Her research covers ESG, natural language processing, and market microstructure. Jenny received her Bachelor degree in Finance from The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2019. Her research has been published in the Journal of Financial Markets.

Kristen Gavazzi

Kristen joined ExtractAlpha in 2021 as a Sales Director. As a past employee of StarMine, Kristen has extensive experience in analyst performance analytics and helped to build out the sell-side solution, StarMine Monitor. She received her BS in Business Management from Cornell University.

Triloke Rajbhandary

Triloke has 10+ years experience in designing and developing software systems in the financial services industry. He joined ExtractAlpha in 2016. Prior to that, he worked as a senior software engineer at HSBC Global Technologies. He holds a Master of Applied Science degree from Ryerson University specializing in signal processing.

Qayyum Rajan

Qayyum (“Q”) joined ExtractAlpha in 2024 as the head of a new division, EA Labs. Q is a data scientist recognized for his innovative work in fintech and venture building. Prior to ExtractAlpha, he founded Nuu Ventures, a venture studio that acquired and scaled startups with a focus on lean growth and strategic exits. Previously, he co-founded iComply Investor Services and ESG Analytics, leveraging AI to assess ESG performance. A recipient of British Columbia’s Top 30 Under 30 award, Q also serves on the Fintech Advisory Committee for the BC Securities Commission and is known for his commitment to disrupting traditional business models through technology.

Yunan Liu, PhD

Yunan joined ExtractAlpha in 2019 as a quantitative researcher. Prior to that, he worked as a research analyst at ICBC, covering the macro economy and the Asian bond market. Yunan received his PhD in Economics & Finance from The University of Hong Kong in 2018. His research fields cover Empirical Asset Pricing, Mergers & Acquisitions, and Intellectual Property. His research outputs have been presented at major conferences such as AFA, FMA and FMA (Asia). Yunan received his Masters degree in Operations Research from London School of Economics in 2013 and his Bachelor degree in International Business from Nottingham University in 2012.

Willett Bird, CFA

Prior to joining ExtractAlpha in 2022, Willett was a sales director for Vidrio Financial. Willett was based in Hong Kong for nearly two decades where he oversaw FIS Global’s Asset Management and Commercial Banking efforts. Willett worked at FactSet, where he built the Asian Portfolio and Quantitative Analytics team and oversaw FactSet’s Southeast Asian operations. Willett completed his undergraduate studies at Georgetown University and finished a joint degree MBA from the Northwestern Kellogg School and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2010. Willett also holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.

Julie Craig

Julie Craig is a senior marketing executive with decades of experience marketing high tech, fintech, and financial services offerings. She joined ExtractAlpha in 2022. She was formerly with AlphaSense, where she led marketing at a startup now valued at $4B. Prior to that, she was with Interactive Data where she led marketing initiatives and a multi-million dollar budget for an award-winning product line for individual and institutional investors.

Jeff Geisenheimer

Jeff is the CFO and Head of Operations and Compliance at ExtractAlpha, directing our financial, operational, compliance, and strategic management. He previously served as CFO at Estimize and at two publicly traded firms, Multex and Market Guide. Jeff also served as CFO at private-equity–backed companies including Coleman Research, Ford Models, Instant Information, and Moneyline Telerate. He has also held roles as advisor, partner, and board member at Total Reliance, CreditRiskMonitor, Mochidoki, and Resurge.

Vinesh Jha

Vinesh founded ExtractAlpha in 2013 with the mission of bringing analytical rigor to the analysis and marketing of new datasets for the capital markets. Since ExtractAlpha’s merger with Estimize in early 2021, he has served as the CEO of both entities. From 1999 to 2005, Vinesh was the Director of Quantitative Research at StarMine in San Francisco, where he developed industry leading metrics of sell side analyst performance as well as successful commercial alpha signals and products based on analyst, fundamental, and other data sources. Subsequently, he developed systematic trading strategies for proprietary trading desks at Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley in New York. Most recently he was Executive Director at PDT Partners, a spinoff of Morgan Stanley’s premiere quant prop trading group, where in addition to research, he also applied his experience in the communication of complex quantitative concepts to investor relations. Vinesh holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago and a graduate degree from the University of Cambridge, both in mathematics.

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