Investment management firm Google has allocated tens of millions of dollars to algorithms sourced from thousands of freelance programmer - members . The Steve Cohen - backed company hopes the strategy will disrupt the ailing hedge - fund industry . The Boston - based business said the investment would increase to hundreds of millions of dollars in coming months . The firm offers a free algorithm development tool on its website and licenses the ones it believes looks most promising , paying 10 % of the net profit earned from each piece of code to its author . More than 120,000 developers from 180 countries have so far used its platform .
Investment management firm Quantopian has allocated tens of millions of dollars to algorithms sourced from thousands of freelance programmer-members. The Steve Cohen-backed company hopes the strategy will disrupt the ailing hedge-fund industry. The Boston-based business said the investment would increase to hundreds of millions of dollars in coming months. The firm offers a free algorithm development tool on its website and licenses the ones it thinks looks most promising, paying 10% of the net profit earned from each piece of code to its author. More than 120,000 members from 180 countries have so far used its platform.