Atlanta based Neuravest Research, a provider of AI-driven investment solutions, recently announced the hiring of JP Gravitt as Head of Data & Strategy. Gravitt will also staff and open Neuravest’s New York City office.
Newest Neuravest Hire
Mr. JP Gravitt joins Neuravest Research following a career of more than nineteen years on the buy-side, independent research, and alternative data industries as portfolio manager, research manager and equity analyst. JP’s role at Neuravest will be Head of Data and Strategy, and he will open and staff a New York City office for the firm.
Prior to joining Neuravest, Mr. Gravitt was Director of Research at alternative data provider 7Park Data where he built a team of analysts and former investors to provide unique insights from a wide range of alternative data sets. Previously, Gravitt spent more than 3 years at independent research firm Market Realist managing the research team and developing new research products. Earlier in his career, JP spent more than 12 years as a Portfolio Manager and analyst at Fred Alger Management, Moore Capital, S Squared, Grange Park Capital and Pequot Capital. Mr. Gravitt received his B.S. in Mathematics from Vanderbilt University, and an MBA in Financial Analytics from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.
As Head of Data & Strategy, Gravitt will manage Neuravest’s research and data teams located in New York and Atlanta to bring on various alternative and traditional data sets, determine the predictive value of those sets, and build and monitor optimized thematic portfolios for clients based on those data sets. Gravitt will also serve as head of Neuravest’s New York office.
Erez Katz, co-founder and CEO of Neuravest commented on the recent hire, “JP’s unique buy-side and sell-side experience positions him to excel in a pivotal role critical to Neuravest’s rapid growth as a global player. JP is tasked with staffing our NYC office with vertical experts who will merge traditional best practices in market, sector and individual securities analysis with our ground breaking AI technology in data validation and portfolio construction. We’re looking forward to continued growth as we expand our team and global presence. It’s an exciting time for our company and we’re thrilled to have JP on our team.”
Our Take
Neuravest’s announcement of hiring an extremely experienced research and alternative data executive like JP Gravitt is not terribly surprising as the firm has been quite busy scaling up following its launch two and a half months ago. Two weeks ago, Neuravest announced the launch of its new Data Refinery™ program targeting alternative data suppliers, and in late March the firm announced the addition of Seth Merrin as Executive Chairman and lead investor.
As we have mentioned in the past, we suspect Neuravest will remain busy in the next six months or more with key staffing additions, new product launches, and the addition of key new alternative data partners to its Data Refinery program. All of this should enable Neuravest to increase its visibility and become a more sustainable business.
However, the big question we have is whether Neuravest can clearly differentiate itself from the growing number of competitors in its space like CRUX Informatics, CloudQuant, and Invisage, enabling it to gain traction for its services with both alternative data firms and the asset management community? Clearly, Gravitt and the rest of his colleagues at Neuravest will have their jobs cut out for them. It will be interesting to see whether Neuravest can position itself as an integral solution to help alternative data vendors market their products, and help asset managers identify and integrate valuable datasets as part of their investment process.