Kilduff's Eagle Alpha flies as it raises more than €1m

Ex investment banker Emmet Kilduff heads Eagle Alpha

John Mulligan

Eagle Alpha, an Irish firm that analyses social media for stockbrokers, hedge funds and other investors, has raised €1m from existing backers including the Kilduff family and Enterprise Ireland.

The company is headed by former investment banker Emmet Kilduff, who previously worked with Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse.

Tech entrepreneur Tony Kilduff, who is also a director of Eagle Alpha, has invested in the company via his Denmark-based Quay Investments vehicle.

Quay Investments stumped up a total of €782,000 in fresh funding.

Rosland Kilduff has invested €100,000, while Enterprise Ireland has injected €150,000.

There are a number of other shareholders in the company. It raised more than €1m back in 2014 from a total of 13 angel investors.

They included Gugielmo Sartori di Borgoricco, the former head of distribution at Barclays.

He is a senior adviser to Eagle Alpha and also the co-founder and joint CEO of UK-based Blueglen Investment Partners.

Other heavy-hitter investors in the Irish firm include the former global head of distribution at Schroders, Massimo Tosato; Irish tech entrepreneur Pat Brazel; Antoine Badel of Alken Asset Management and Touchbet's Swedish tycoon Magnus Hedman (who is also the owner of Sporting Index).

Charles Kirwan-Taylor, the former CEO of RAB Capital who is now head of corporate affairs at Gatwick Airport is also a shareholder, as is the former managing director of Ulster Bank Markets, Paul McEnroe. He is now managing principal of Dublin startup Bolt Capital.

Equity traders are not permitted to use social media while working due to compliance rules, Emmet Kilduff has previously pointed out.

Eagle Alpha monitors social-media platforms on their behalf. Its analytical tools enable clients to obtain proprietary analytics on 90 million data sources for research into events such as product launches and elections, it tells clients.