Point72’s Cohen Bets $250 Million on Crowd-Sourced Quantopian

  • Billionaire also invests in Boston firm through venture unit
  • CEO says ‘watershed’ moment will boost allocations, royalties
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Point72’s Steve Cohen is committing as much as $250 million of capital to be managed by Quantopian Inc., the 5-year-old online platform where members build computerized trading models and earn a share of profits.

Cohen’s bet on the Boston-based firm is the first major commitment of funds for Quantopian to manage using its members’ algorithms, the company said Wednesday in a statementBloomberg Terminal. Cohen is also making an undisclosed investment in Quantopian through his family-office’s venture-capital arm, Point72 Ventures, a “watershed moment for the entire industry” that will enable Quantopian to increase allocations and pay larger royalties to authors of profitable algorithms, Chief Executive Officer John Fawcett said in the statement.