The LSE Directory / Alternative data
Earnest Analytics is a New York based alternative data company that aggregates and normalises US consumer transaction data (credit and debit card panels), de-identified healthcare claims (medical and pharmacy), web-scraped retail pricing, and retail scanner data. Its core product, Dash, is an analytics platform that turns these raw feeds into structured, company-level signals such as revenue estimates, market share, customer retention and pricing trends, accessible through an online portal or row-level direct table transfer, with data lags as short as one day for some products. Its differentiator against other alternative data vendors is combining consumer transaction data and healthcare claims data under one roof, spanning named datasets including Orion, Vela Gamma and Vela Velorum for consumer spend, Leo, Hydrus and Phoenix for medical and pharmacy claims, and Scanner CPG, Auto Sellers, Homebuilders and Retail Pricing for scanner and web-scraped data. It targets institutional investors (long/short equity funds, quantitative investors, private equity, venture capital and healthcare-focused investors), corporate strategy, finance and investor-relations teams, management consultants, and government agencies; an internal analyst team validates signals against companies' subsequently reported results. Founded in 2012 by CEO Kevin Carson as Earnest Research, the company rebranded to Earnest Analytics in November 2022 alongside the launch of the Dash platform, marking its shift from a single revenue-forecasting product to a broader consumer and healthcare data business. Its own marketing materials describe coverage of more than 180 million accounts across twelve representative datasets and cite Campbell's, Instacart, Guitar Center and Affirm as clients. On April 28, 2025, Earnest Analytics was acquired by Consumer Edge, a New York based consumer alternative-data intelligence firm founded in 2009; the acquisition was announced April 14, 2025 with deal terms undisclosed, and both companies described it as combining Earnest's transaction and healthcare data portfolio with Consumer Edge's consumer intelligence business. Since the acquisition, Earnest Analytics continues to operate under its own brand within Consumer Edge and keeps publishing consumer-trend research, recently covering topics such as tariffs, apparel spending and restaurant industry performance on its insights blog.
