A tech executive at $41 billion Fortress is leaving to start his own data-focused fund

• The chief technology and information of $41 billion Fortress Investment Group is leaving the firm.
• Hylton Socher, a long-time exec at Fortress, is starting his own investment management firm that'll focus on data and machine learning.

---

Hylton Socher, the chief technology and information officer of Fortress Investment Group, the $41 billion hedge fund, is leaving the fund to start his own venture, Business Insider has learned.

Socher, whose career at Fortress spans a decade, fell down the rabbit hole of big data and other new-wave technologies sweeping Wall Street, he said in an interview.

Socher's firm, which he expects to be up-and-running by the first quarter of 2019, will focus on algorithmic trading leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning. He's calling it VaraQuest, which stands for valuable relationship awareness.

"I will be looking to take huge amounts of data, and connecting them, and then squeeze alpha out of that," Socher said. "The example everyone knows: watching the traffic in the Walmart parking lot to see where the stock will go ... you want to look at those non-obvious connections."

He's now in the early stages of getting the firm off the ground, he said, without giving specifics about the size or structure of the fund.

Socher, who joined Fortress in March 2008, previously served as chief information officer of trading firm Susquehanna International Group.

Socher's fund would join a string of other high profile hedge fund launches this year, including those from billionaire Steve Cohen , ex-Millennium head Mike Gelband and former Viking Global chief investment officer Dan Sundheim .

See also:

• Bitcoin king Mike Novogratz leads $52 million investment in crypto-lending startup
• Coinbase has lured a $20 billion hedge fund onto its platform, but experts say the firm could run into trouble down the road