Satellite imagery is used by SpaceKnow and combined with other sources to produce charts like this on Chinese manufacturing output. Credit: SpaceKnow

SAN FRANCISCO — Geospatial analytics company SpaceKnow is bringing in Jeremy Fand, a financial services industry veteran, to lead its campaign to develop new products.

Fand, a former Bloomberg product manager, will help SpaceKnow expand its suite of financial index products and build its geospatial analytics platform, said Hugh Norton-Smith, SpaceKnow vice president for business development and strategy.

“Jeremy knows financial services well and can help us build the index business significantly,” Norton-Smith told SpaceNews.

San Francisco-based SpaceKnow is widely known for its China Satellite Manufacturing Index, which combines satellite imagery with street maps and spectral data to monitor activity at 6,000 industrial sites in China, and its Africa Night Light Index, which uses the intensity of illumination in individual nations and the continent as a whole as an economic indicator.

At Bloomberg, Fand led macro-economics and equity analytics, spearheading the adoption of non-traditional indices to track the economy using data from sensors and social media platforms. Prior to Bloomberg, Fand was a global macro portfolio manager for Tudor Investment Corporation, a hedge fund manager based in Greenwich, Connecticut.

“Jeremy has a deeply relevant track record building sophisticated big data products, coupled with a nuanced appreciation for financial markets,” Pavel Machalek, SpaceKnow’s co-founder and chief executive, said in a statement.

“We’re delighted to have someone of his energy and caliber to drive the launch of unique new economic index offerings and further refine our web-based analytics platform.”

SpaceKnow announced in February that it raised $4 million in a series A financing round, bringing the firm’s investment to date to $10 million.

Debra Werner is a correspondent for SpaceNews based in San Francisco. Debra earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree in Journalism from Northwestern University. She...