U.S. startup Airex offers investors à la carte financial data

- A U.S. startup called Airex Inc is launching an online marketplace for investors to buy data and research à la carte from providers including Deutsche Bank, FactSet, Morningstar, Mercer, Nasdaq and S&P Capital IQ, company officials told .

Its Airex Market website is targeting small investors who do not have a budget for subscriptions to Bloomberg LP, Thomson Corp (TRI.TO) and other major data providers, said Chief Executive Stephen Kuhn.

It is also trying to woo large Wall Street firms that want to lower the cost of managing multiple vendors, he said. Customers can access a broad range of products without having to negotiate contracts and haggle over price with each one.

"They'll have access to products they didn't have access to before, they couldn't afford, or just didn't know existed," said Kuhn.

Airex is the latest upstart trying to address complaints on Wall Street about having to get information from too many providers at too high a price. Another startup called Symphony, backed by Wall Street banks, is trying to address the same issues.

Airex is unrelated to the Japanese technology firm Airex Inc (6944.T) and also unrelated to the Canadian heating, ventilation and air conditioning company Airex Inc, said spokesman David Zweifler.

Analysts have said that information providers are wary of doing business with startups who could eventually undercut them. Kuhn says Airex will not compete with companies like Bloomberg or Thomson because of its focus on à la carte offerings.

Kuhn noted that Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE) is making its stock research available on Airex Market for $11.50 per page. In the past, only institutional clients of Deutsche Bank could get access to those reports.

Airex is backed by private investors and run by people with backgrounds in financial technology, including two former Bloomberg executives.

Airex said its Airex Market site will have hundreds of thousands of individual products for sale when it launches. The company will take 30 percent of the income generated from sales and pass the other 70 percent along to vendors.

Spokespeople for FactSet, Morningstar, S&P Capital IQ and Nasdaq confirmed that they had agreements with Airex. A spokesperson for Deutsche Bank declined to comment, and a Bloomberg representative had no immediate comment.

A Thomson spokesperson said: “Thomson offers financial data and information in a variety of ways, and is responsive to customers’ changing requirements around how that data and information are delivered and consumed.”