Investment Banking firm, Alantra has announced that it has acquired a majority stake in the Madrid-based, The Next Geo startup, UrbanData Analytics which offers business intelligence services in the real estate sector (Related: This startup is using Location Intelligence to be the Bloomberg of the real estate industry).

uDA gathers market information from more than 40 public and private sources to develop 190 financial and urban context indicators, generating algorithms to maximise the return in real estate investments so it is easy to see why an investment banking firm might be interested in acquiring a stake; its the future!

UrbanData Analytics was one of the 18 startups that we interviewed in 2018 and believed to be worthy of our attention. The news that a noted investment banking firm has acquired a majority stake in the startup is (another) good sign for the future of uDA. 

Here’s what our friend and co-founder of UrbanData Analytics, Alberto Santos had to say about the development:

“In many ways this is a clear challenge for our team. Our API system and Data Science team now have a clear challenge to: Fully digitize and automate the Real Estate assets valuation process; Improve the way Real Estate Analysts take decisions based on curated data; Make the best portfolio performance possible with Geospatial AI algorithms. In the end, Digitize the investment banking business, an old school business” 

The Urban Data Analytics team from left to right: Carlos Olmos, Chencho Martín, Fernando de Frutos, Enrique Toribio and Alberto Santos. Photograph: Rodrigo Moro Merino. Copyright Guardian.

Here’s wishing Alberto and the team at uDA the very best! Keep the awesomeness going!