{"id":3083,"date":"2026-07-09T15:11:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=3083"},"modified":"2026-07-09T15:11:35","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T15:11:35","slug":"christina-qi-left-behind-a-hedge-fund-trading-7-billion-a-day-for-a-farm-in-utah-her-new-startup-just-raised-97-million-to-rival-bloomberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=3083","title":{"rendered":"Christina Qi left behind a hedge fund trading $7 billion a day for a farm in Utah. Her new startup just raised $97 million to rival Bloomberg"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Databento\u2019s pitch is almost comically unsexy compared to her last venture: sell financial data feeds to the same banks and hedge funds she\u2019d left. The startup just raised a $97 million Series B led by NEA, Fortune<\/em> learned exclusively, with participation from DRW Venture Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and Tribe Capital. The round drew over $300 million in demand, the company said. And Qi is running it all from a farm in Utah.<\/p>\n

Read more DeFi veteran Gauntlet raises $125 million from Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings<\/a><\/p>\n

With only 24 employees, Databento is already profitable\u2014a combination so unusual that, by Qi\u2019s own admission, her investors keep telling her to just spend more money.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe haven\u2019t really touched much of that $97 million,\u201d she told Fortune<\/em>. \u201cOur investors are telling us, spend, spend money, and we\u2019re trying. We\u2019re buying servers, buying stuff like crazy, and yet we\u2019re still profitable every month.\u201d<\/p>\n

The raise brings Databento\u2019s total disclosed funding to around $127 million. No valuation has been made public, but the capital is already earmarked: the company plans to expand from its current servers housed directly inside stock exchanges to more than 20 data centers worldwide, and has secured an additional 100-plus petabytes of storage\u2014more than doubling its previous footprint.<\/p>\n

The problem Databento is solving has bothered anyone who has ever tried to get institutional-grade market data. Qi recalls sending more than 100 emails over 11 months just to procure data from the largest provider on the planet (Qi wouldn\u2019t say directly, but I can: Bloomberg). Sample data arrived on a thumb drive, via snail mail. Databento\u2019s answer is a service where users can add Microsoft stock data to a cart like an e-commerce order and pay only for what they use\u2014a deliberate contrast to Bloomberg Terminals running $20,000 to $27,000 per seat per year and LSEG\u2019s Refinitiv at comparable rates. Meanwhile, global financial market data spending hit $49.2 billion in 2025, and it\u2019s still growing.<\/p>\n

Read more U.S.-Iran talks are \u2018eerily similar\u2019 to Trump\u2019s bumpy China dealings in his first term, says top economist\u2014don\u2019t rule out further oil price spikes<\/a><\/p>\n

Databento\u2019s edge is partially technical. The company uses specialized chips to capture and clean raw price data (every single buy and sell order, in real-time) from 80-plus trading venues worldwide. It is the only vendor delivering that full picture over a regular internet connection. But the real lever is reach: 400 to 500 people sign up daily, ranging from UC Berkeley students vibe coding trading strategies in their dorm rooms to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201c90% of revenue does come from the large financial institutions and AI labs,\u201d Qi said. \u201cBut the beauty is we\u2019re able to attract the best of both worlds.\u201d That includes Nvidia, which Qi confirmed is both a paying customer and technology partner. OpenAI is also a customer.<\/p>\n

Databento\u2019s greatest risk is the one that\u2019s taken down most other scrappy data startups: getting acquired before they could become generational companies. In 2022, MayStreet sold to LSEG, and last year BML was acquired at Series B for around $250 million\u2014exactly where Databento is now. \u201cWe\u2019re going to bring this way past a billion,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is just the starting line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Trump has created a \u2018trickle up\u2019 tariff economy that means U.S. companies aren\u2019t done hiking consumer prices over import taxes<\/a><\/p>\n

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Databento serves everyone from student traders to the world’s largest hedge funds\u2014and counts Nvidia and OpenAI as customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[164],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-data"],"yoast_head":"\nChristina Qi left behind a hedge fund trading $7 billion a day for a farm in Utah. 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