What Carbon Arc does

Carbon Arc operates a two-sided insights exchange platform that converts fragmented alternative data into structured, AI-ready intelligence through a proprietary unified ontology covering 51T+ transactions, 1+ petabytes, 72K+ brands, and 10K+ companies. The platform serves institutional investors (hedge funds, banks, sovereign wealth funds), consumer brands, healthcare and media organizations, and AI-native companies that need decision-ready inputs for models and research workflows — replacing rigid multi-month data procurement cycles with consumption-based access. Core products include the Insights Exchange marketplace, the Lenses conversational AI interface for natural-language queries, the MCP Server for AI agent integration, the Data Library catalog of 40+ alternative datasets (credit card, foot traffic, jobs, maritime, POS, healthcare claims, sports ticketing), and supporting tools (Builder, Discover, Data Valuation).

The business model combines three pricing tiers — Professional ($20/month) targeting individual analysts and researchers, Business ($200/month) for analytical teams, and Enterprise (custom) for institutions requiring compliance tooling and dedicated account management — with usage-based consumption over promo tokens (50 / 500 / custom). Go-to-market is a hybrid motion: product-led growth at the Professional tier via a $20/month self-serve entry point, inside sales for mid-market Business accounts, and enterprise field sales for large institutions. Distribution extends beyond direct sales through embedded API/MCP integration with AI platforms such as Perplexity's 'Computer for Professional Finance'.

Carbon Arc was founded in 2020 by Kirk McKeown (ex-Point72, Glenview Capital, Tudor Investment) and is headquartered in New York as a remote-first Delaware-incorporated entity. The company raised a $56 million Series A in March 2025 led by Liberty City Ventures with K5 Global, Raptor Group, and Wasserman Media Group, and has executed strategic moves including a Facteus data partnership (2025), a Neustreet acquisition (May 2026), and the Perplexity finance platform integration (May 2026). The leadership team combines buy-side data expertise (CEO, General Counsel) with senior engineering talent from Google, Waymo, Zoox, and McKinsey-trained product leadership.

Name

Carbon Arc

Legal name

Carbon Arc Corporation

Website

https://carbonarc.ai

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Carbon Arc operates a consumption-based insights exchange that converts fragmented alternative data — covering 51T+ transactions across finance, healthcare, retail, and media — into structured, AI-ready intelligence for institutional investors, consumer brands, and AI-native companies via its Lenses conversational interface and MCP Server.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Subscription Plans: Three-tier subscription model: Professional ($20/month) for individuals, Business ($200/month) for teams, and Enterprise (custom pricing) for large organizations. Subscriptions provide baseline access to the platform, MCP Server context, and data assets.
2. Consumption-based Data Access: Usage-based consumption model where customers pay for data assets they actually consume rather than fixed contracts. Consumption-based pricing replaces rigid contracts, giving teams control over usage, spend, and legal complexity without overbuying or underutilization. Saves organizations 60-80% on data costs compared to traditional procurement.
3. Promo Tokens: Platform credits (50 for Professional, 500 for Business) provided with subscriptions for initial platform use, with additional consumption-based charges beyond tokens.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Carbon Arc operates a two-sided, consumption-based insights exchange platform that transforms raw, fragmented data from finance, healthcare, media, and retail into structured, standardized intelligence via a proprietary unified ontology. Customers access decision-ready data assets through natural-language interfaces (Lenses), AI-agent context (MCP Server), and a Python SDK/API, with pricing tied to actual consumption rather than rigid enterprise contracts.

Product overview

Carbon Arc offers a platform-plus-modules architecture centered on the Insights Exchange, the world's first real-time consumption-based insights exchange for the AI-driven economy. The core platform transforms raw, fragmented data into structured, decision-ready intelligence through a proprietary unified ontology. Key modules include Lenses (conversational AI interface for natural language data queries), the MCP Server (context layer for AI agent integration), the Data Library (catalog of 40+ alternative datasets), the Ontology (semantic mapping layer), Data Pipelines (automated ETL), and Builder (no-code analysis tool). The Discover tool provides AI-powered dataset discovery, while the Data Valuation Tool helps data owners estimate asset value. Pricing tiers include Professional ($20/month for individuals), Business ($200/month for teams), and Enterprise (custom).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Insights Exchange: The world's first real-time consumption-based insights exchange platform that transforms raw data into structured, model-ready intelligence for AI developers and businesses.

Products and services

• Insights Exchange A real-time, consumption-based exchange platform that aggregates fragmented third-party data from finance, healthcare, media, and retail into a unified ontology of 70+ trillion transactions, enabling dynamic buy and sell of decision-ready data assets for institutional investors, AI companies, and enterprises.
• Lenses A conversational AI interface that allows users to query Carbon Arc's data assets in natural language about spend, demand, activity, and momentum, democratizing institutional-quality data access for individual analysts, researchers, and investors at $20/month.
• MCP Server (Model Context Protocol) A context layer between AI agents and Carbon Arc's transaction ontology that structures and grounds model context, enabling AI agents (Perplexity, Claude, etc.) to generate insights through natural-language queries against 70+ trillion real-world transactions.
• Data Library A consumption-based catalog of 40+ alternative datasets including credit card panels, foot traffic, job movements, maritime data, digital advertising, POS, ticketing, and OTT streaming, purchased individually via the Insights Exchange without lengthy contracts.
• Builder A no-code analytical layer that pairs entities, insights, and context into a unified workflow, enabling users to move from a natural-language question to a validated analytical framework in a few clicks.
• Discover An AI-powered discovery tool on the Carbon Arc website that recommends relevant data assets based on the user's industry and use-case inputs, covering demand management, investment research, market sizing, and consumer intelligence.
• Data Valuation Tool A free valuation calculator that estimates the potential market value of data assets based on data type, volume, quality, uniqueness, and market demand using real market comparables and industry benchmarks.

Quantifiable outcome

• 60-80% cost savings on data compared to traditional procurement
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

AI capability8 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• PerplexitycoreTechnology or Integration · 6 May 2026Carbon Arc is one of the licensed data providers integrated into Perplexity's 'Computer for Professional Finance' platform alongside Morningstar, PitchBook, and Daloopa. The platform offers over 40 live finance tools and 35 prebuilt analyst workflows, with Carbon Arc providing structured consumer and alternative data for AI-generated outputs.
• FacteuscoreTechnology or Integration · 4 August 2025Strategic partnership to provide businesses with access to consumer transaction data covering $1.6 trillion in annual transactions across 180 million US consumers. The partnership enables customers to purchase specific lagged, aggregated data segments by ticker, time window, or custom cohort through Carbon Arc's consumption-based model, disrupting traditional rigid and expensive data procurement methods.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights7 records

Direct peers

• Quandl (Nasdaq): Alternative data marketplace offering financial, economic, and alternative datasets. Closely comparable exchange-and-catalog model, now backed by Nasdaq's distribution scale.
• AlphaSense: AI-powered market intelligence platform for enterprises and financial institutions. Closely comparable on enterprise search and decision-ready insights delivery, and competes directly for the same hedge fund, bank, and corporate strategy budgets.
• Eagle Alpha: Alternative data marketplace and dataset catalog serving institutional investors. Closely comparable exchange-like distribution model for alternative data assets targeting hedge funds and asset managers.
• M Science: Alternative data provider delivering consumer transaction and behavioral signals to institutional investors. Directly comparable on data type (credit card, panel-based transactions) and target buyer.
• YipitData: Alternative data provider offering granular e-commerce, consumer, and transactional datasets to institutional investors. Directly comparable on data inventory (consumer transactions, web traffic), institutional customer base, and consumption-style offerings.

Emerging players

• Sentieo (now AlphaSense): AI-powered research and document search platform for finance professionals. Comparable on AI-driven workflow tooling for analysts, though differentiated on document search vs. transactional intelligence.
• Hebbia: AI knowledge worker platform that ingests large document and data sets to produce analyst-grade outputs. Comparable on AI-native, consumption-based model aimed at financial and professional services workflows.

Broad incumbents

• Databricks: Unified data and AI platform used by enterprises to process petabyte-scale datasets and serve ML/AI applications. Comparable on data infrastructure for AI workloads; broader and more horizontal in scope.
• Bloomberg: Dominant financial data, analytics, and terminal provider for institutional finance. Competes for the same hedge fund, bank, and sovereign wealth fund spend with much broader coverage and deeply embedded workflow.
• Snowflake: Cloud data platform enabling organizations to store, process, and share structured data. Comparable on structured-data-as-a-service for AI/ML consumption; much larger incumbent with marketplace functionality (Snowflake Marketplace) that competes with the insights exchange model.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/Carbon-Arc/carbonarc

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors5 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Carbon Arc