Consumer transactional data is undisputedly the most popular type of dataset among Neudata platform users. It is time to review how the payment habits of China’s consumers have been shifting over the past few years and examine the limitations of the current consumer purchase datasets. We will also explore the next frontier of consumer spending data in China.

While hedge funds have been using alternative data for the last 15 years, the private equity community has been a much slower adopter. But with an uptick in data science headcount in the private equity sector, it suggests the narrative is about to change. This article discusses the challenges PE investors face in using alternative data to drive returns and gives some examples of the essential dataset types that all private equity investors should consider for sourcing, due diligence and portfolio performance.