SESAMm Recognized in the ESG Data And Analytics Providers Landscape Report for Q1 2024

Happy new year! 2018 already holds many exciting news with various projects and clients already onboard. We begin the year with 2 recently signed contracts with top-ranked hedge funds, additional features and cryptocurrencies added to L’Humeur des Marchés and published plentiful of internships and job opportunities. Moreover, following our partnership with Eagle Alpha and the event in New York last month, we will be organizing a roadshow in London to meet high-ranked hedge funds on February 7th and 8th.

Collaboration with new major clients

Recently, we have signed 2 major contracts with top-ranked hedge funds.

The first contract is with Nikko Global Wrap (one of the subsidiaries of Sumitomo Mitsui Asset Management, a major asset manager in Japan) managing JPY 1.7 trillion.

Second contract has been signed with La Française Investment Solutions, a subsidiary of La Française Group, a top 10 French asset manager with more than €64bn assets under management.

This great news proves our technology is trusted by major financial institutions and gives us more confidence to continue looking for collaboration opportunities worldwide.

Future contracts and new distributor

We are currently in negotiation talks with another major French asset manager, a bank, two insurers and a US hedge fund. We hope to keep up at the same pace for the whole year and sign new contracts in the weeks ahead.

Also, we have recently started a new partnership with Neudata, a major UK alternative data distributor. We have signed an agreement, so they could support us and promote our solutions & services.

After New York, London

Last month, SESAMm made its very 1st trip to the USA for the BIG Alternative Data Showcase week organized by our partner Eagle Alpha. It proved to be a valuable experience from which multiple business opportunities arose and we launched many product trials with significant US funds.

Next month, we are planning a roadshow in London with Eagle Alpha. We already arranged multiple meetings with hedge funds and, thanks to Eagle Alpha’s support, we are given a unique opportunity to present and show our solutions to asset managers and C-level decision makers.

New additions to L’Humeur des Marchés

Concerning our platform L’Humeur des Marchés, we are glad to announce that we will soon be providing historical data concerning the assets. This update is planned to happen during next month and will give users more flexibility and options related to their investment and strategies.

In addition, an alert module is under development and we have begun to include cryptocurrencies into the platform. Most of the top-ranked cryptocurrencies are currently covered – such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Ripple, among others as shown below.

Developments are planned to further extend our coverage of alt-coins with the objective to include every single major capitalization into L’Humeur des Marchés.

New job opportunities

Last but not least, we will be scaling our team during 2018. Multiple internships and job offers are currently available to further support SESAMm’s growth and ambition. We are looking for candidates in the fields of IT, finance and Data science but, most of all, highly motivated individuals seeking challenges! You can find all our offers by following this link. We would be very excited to receive your applications or recommendations for profiles seeking to work with us!

Thank you for your support and best wishes to you for 2018!

Imagine finding out you've run out of milk immediately after pouring a bowl of cereal. Or maybe realizing you don't have eggs while in the middle of baking a cake. We've all been there, and it's frustrating, to say the least. And this scene has been playing around the globe over the last couple of years for many foods and products. One day it's microchip shortages, and the next, it's baby formula.

Unfortunate as it is, it's one thing for consumers to cope with an empty car lot because of chip shortages. It's another to cope with a hungry infant because store shelves that once contained baby formula are now bare. For those parents and caretakers, their emotions are beyond feeling frustrated. They feel anger and panic, the sort of emotions that they share with their friends and colleagues on social media and forums. The kind of expression that can change the public's sentiment about a company, which in turn can move markets.

This Alternative Data Trends post will examine web data concerning the baby formula shortage. We'll analyze articles, social media, and forum conversations culminating in the U.S. crisis as the news reaches national exposure. We'll also highlight red flags investors could've seen had they monitored the situation with an AI-powered text analysis tool like SESAMm's TextReveal®.

Early warnings: When baby formula supplies began to run dry vs. when it became a national crisis

If we compare absolute and relative volumes—relative being mentions about the topic compared to our entire data lake—the term "formula milk market" yields parallel results. Mentions spike in May when the crisis reaches national coverage (see Figure 1).

However, comparing absolute and relative volumes for the term "formula milk shortage," we find red flags as early as January 2022, four months before the crisis receives national attention (see Figure 2). Relative mentions spike on three occasions before absolute volumes register any significant noise. The fourth instance matches a ripple on the absolute chart.

These articles provide an example of the content published around the times of those rises in mentions:

1. Jan. 12, 2022: "Baby Formula Is Hard to Find. Brands and Stores Are Divided Over Why.," WSJ
2. Feb. 9, 2022: "Baby formula shortage has some families scrambling," WCAX-CBS
3. Mar. 7, 2022: "Baby formula shortage and recalls affecting families," KGUN-ABC
4. Apr. 11, 2022: "A shortage of baby formula is worsening and causing some stores to limit sales," WHYY-PBS

Analyzing the sentiment and polarity of the formula milk market

In short, the e-reputation of the formula milk market has been negative since the beginning of 2022 (see Figure 3). Positive sentiment drops and reflects the opposing negative sentiment almost exactly until May, when the news about the crisis breaks. Likewise, polarity trends downward over the same period.

Note: Polarity represents a company's aggregate of positive and negative sentiment (opinions, reviews), ranging from -1 to 1. A zero score means that there is as much positive as negative sentiment. High e-reputation brands can have polarity scores of more than 0.5.

The web data shows that some articles correlate with sentiment and polarity changes. For instance, in February, AboutLawsuits.com posted, "Similac and Enfamil Baby Formula Shortages Create Infant Feeding Challenges." And in May, HealthDay, a prominent syndicator of health news, posts, "U.S. Baby Formula Shortage Worsens."

Analyzing formula milk brands

In the U.S., four brands produce the bulk of formula milk: Abbott, Mead Johnson, Nestlé, and Perrigo. Abbott and Nestlé hold the largest share of the formula milk market.

When we group these four brands' mentions from January 2021 to June 2022, we can see how their mention volumes compare (Figure 4). For example, at the beginning of the graph, we can see that Abbott and Nestlé have more mention-volume relative to their market share. However, at the end of 2021, Mead Johnson and Abbott experience spikes in mentions due to lawsuits against their formulas. Then, in Q1 2022, Abbott mentions increased drastically after its formulas were recalled due to possible contamination, taking more than 75% of the mention volume.

Analyzing ESG risks by company

Evaluating the top four brands' ESG risks reveals red flags as early as May 2021, when Abbott was fined for including a banned flavoring in its baby formula (see Figure 5). And most red flags were raised before the national shortage crisis was publicized widely.

Besides Abbott, most brands' risks remained low during 2021. However, ESG risks increase during Q1 2022 for all four major formula milk brands. The FDA warned consumers against using specific Abbott formulas during an investigation of infant illnesses possibly caused by Abbott's formulas. Perrigo settles a lawsuit from the State of California over baby formula lead levels. And a panel of federal judges centralizes many baby formula lawsuits into one federal court, including cases against Mead Johnson. Nestlé stays below the 5% threshold throughout, with little to no controversies found.

Three tactics and a summary

The baby formula market in the U.S. has been volatile for many reasons, which we won't get into in this article. However, this volatility could be seen and planned for. In this case, here are some tactics you can take to minimize your investment risks:

1. Employ a tool like SESAMm’s TextReveal to evaluate web data for insights into your investments. With premiere NLP technology, you can uncover sentiment and ESG insights about your industry, portfolio companies, or current investments.
   
   
2. Expand your research term for deeper insights. In this study, the term "formula milk market" had matching absolute and relative volumes. From this view, nothing looks out of place, and there aren't any red flags. However, when we expanded our research with the term "formula milk shortage," we found many controversies before the crisis gained national attention.
   
   
3. Dig into the controversies' causes. It's not enough to acknowledge a red flag. It would be best if you looked into what the potential reason is. Is the controversy caused by external factors or internal ones? Maybe both? Is the issue a one-time occurrence, or is it a pattern? So it's essential to avoid black-box tools. With solutions such as TextReveal that allow you to see beyond, you can access the underlying articles triggering the red flags.

Stay in touch with SESAMm

Thanks for reading this issue of Alternative Data Trends. Be sure to catch the next issue by subscribing to our blog. And if you'd like a TextReveal demo, send us a message via the form.

As the global sustainability conversation matures, so does the language. Concepts like blue bonds, carbon leakage, and financed emissions are no longer the domain of climate policy insiders; they’re now central to decision-making in boardrooms, supply chains, and marketing teams. Yet, as climate finance grows more complex, many professionals lack the vocabulary to keep up.

That’s where Vogue Business comes in. The publication has released a Climate Finance Glossary designed to decipher the technical terms reshaping corporate sustainability. While Vogue may be best known for fashion, this initiative acknowledges the deep financial implications of sustainability, particularly in industries like apparel, where environmental impact is closely tied to sourcing and production decisions.

From Carbon Budgets to Just Transition

The glossary includes more than two dozen terms, covering core themes like green and blue bonds, carbon border adjustments (CBAM), nature-based solutions, and the Just Transition. It also addresses frameworks that investors and regulators are now embedding in policy and disclosures, such as double materiality, ESG integration, and science-based targets.

The definitions are not oversimplified; they’re clear but grounded in academic and policy expertise. Contributors include researchers from the University of Exeter and Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, lending credibility to what could otherwise be seen as a lightweight effort.

The result is a tool that helps close the gap between sustainability and finance teams, especially in companies navigating incoming ESG regulations like the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) or the Green Claims Directive.

Why This Glossary Matters

Many sustainability professionals, especially those outside the finance world, are overwhelmed by ESG jargon. At the same time, finance teams often lack the environmental literacy to assess risks in areas like biodiversity loss or Scope 3 emissions. This glossary offers a shared language.

More than just a communications tool, it’s a strategic enabler. With greater climate disclosure, rising litigation risks around greenwashing, and investor expectations for transparency, understanding climate finance is no longer optional. It’s a baseline requirement for leadership.

This glossary arrives not a moment too soon for industries like fashion and retail, where storytelling, brand purpose, and supply chain transparency intersect.

Final Thoughts

The Vogue Business Climate Finance Glossary signals something larger: climate finance is no longer niche. It’s becoming a mainstream business competency. And when major business media take steps to make it more accessible, they’re not just informing; they’re helping shape the future of corporate sustainability.

As climate risk becomes investment risk and ESG moves from marketing to materiality, shared understanding will be the foundation of credible action.

SESAMm’s AI Technology Reveals ESG Insights

Discover unparalleled insights into ESG controversies, risks, and opportunities across industries. Learn more about how SESAMm can help you analyze millions of private and public companies using AI-powered text analysis tools.