Integrity Research Feature: Helios launches API and new platform
Helios was featured in an Integrity Research article and newsletter this past week, which boasts a 75,000+ readership of traders! Integrity Research focuses on the announcement of our new API feature - and how commodity traders & agricultural buyers can seamlessly ingest our data for their models and reporting.
See the article content below:
Last week, Helios AI launched its flagship product that forecasts global soft commodities prices and supply drivers for grains, fruits and vegetables. This new service enables users interested in commodities to gain real-time access to the insights and transparency they need to make better decisions about where and when to source their agricultural commodities.
Helios AI’s recent product launch is a software platform that enables commodities traders and agricultural buyers to monitor global growing seasons for the top 50 fruits and vegetables, identify supply disruptions, and forecast price changes for these commodities on a timely and extremely granular basis.
Founded in 2022, Helios Artificial Intelligence, Inc. is a Tysons, Virginia-based artificial intelligence company that specializes in predicting soft commodity prices and agricultural supply disruptions, covering 85 countries and 150 commodities. Helios AI was co-founded by Francisco Martin-Rayo formerly of Deep Labs and Boston Consulting Group, and Eden Canlilar previously AI/ML engineer at Google and recipient of the 2021 Emerging Technologist Abie Award.
Helios’ AI platform analyzes billions of signals in real-time to identify agricultural supply risks globally. Harnessing daily and historical climate data for over 14 million locations, Helios gives users the most time sensitive and granular predictions for all the commodities they cover.
Helios’ risk signals are highly predictive of price movements (90% accuracy);
Tracks over 150 countries daily in the Helios AI database;
Data covering the past 20 years for each location with new data updated every 24 hours;
60,000 global news sources updated every 15 minutes: The Helios AI model is constantly scanning news sources for updates that could influence commodity supply and price;
Machine learning models specific to each commodity covered by Helios AI; and,
Ongoing data analysis and incorporation of new information sources: Helios updates their models continuously as new risks present themselves, increasing the accuracy of their various predictive features.
Francisco Martin-Rayo, co-founder and CEO, explains their recent product launch saying, “Customers today have to rely on word of mouth and outdated generic reports. For the first time, with Helios’ newest platform, users can monitor a crop’s growing season across key countries, quickly determine supply availability, and forecast global price shifts.”
Our Take
Historically, most commodity market participants rely on outdated and generic government releases, weather forecasts, and simplistic analyses of supply/demand drivers. Consequently, these markets often take weeks, if not months, to react to major commodity market developments.
These trends have been exacerbated by the effects of climate change and various climatic disruptions, which have recently become a driving force behind major commodity price increases. For example, PriceWaterhouseCoopers estimates that drought risk will increase to at least 30% for major crops by 2050.
Consequently, the recent launch of Helios AI’s extensive commodities supply monitoring and price forecasting model is a major step forward in providing commodities traders, producers and buyers with near real-time information and insights on the key drivers of the various soft commodity markets that matter to them. For example, Helios AI’s Global Commodity Report accurately predicted BOTH the 17% rise in soybean prices and the subsequent fall a full two weeks before the market.
It will be interesting to watch as Helios AI adds more crops to its coverage list, expands its database of historical data, and increases the forecast horizon for its price predictions in the coming few years. Clearly, as Helios AI gains market traction, they are likely to have a significant impact on the way participants in the commodities markets make decisions.
