Pandemic, new regulations send enterprises hunting for data to level-up their AI
San Mateo, Calif. — May 18, 2021 — Explorium, the External Data platform that automatically discovers thousands of relevant data signals and uses them to improve analytics and machine learning, has closed its $75M Series C funding round, led by global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners, with investors Fort Ross Ventures, Vintage Investment Partners, Zeev Ventures, Emerge, F2 Venture Capital, 01 Advisors and Dynamic Loop Capital also participating. The round brings Explorium’s total investment to more than $127M, as George Mathew, Managing Director at Insight Partners and former President & COO of Alteryx, joins Explorium’s board of directors.
Explorium’s latest capital raise, eight months after its Series B, comes on the heels of a year that revealed the limitations — and perils — of predictive models based entirely on internal data, as well as the challenges of obtaining impactful and reliable data from outside a company’s four walls.
Reviewing the events of 2020, consulting firm McKinsey & Co. noted: “In a few short months, consumer purchasing habits, activities and digital behavior changed dramatically, making preexisting consumer research, forecasts and predictive models obsolete. Moreover, as organizations scrambled to understand these changing patterns, they discovered little of use in their internal data.”
As business conditions evolved and regulations restricted access to crucial sources of information, business teams went hunting outside their organizations for data to support machine learning and other mission-critical analytics—and discovered it was no easy task. A recent Explorium study found enterprises were hungry for external data but had no clear idea how to get it.
Of the respondents:
- 79% perceived external data as very valuable for analysis and modeling
- 93% said finding relevant data took high or medium effort
- 81% said they spent at least $100K a month acquiring external data
- Less than 33% have an organized strategy for acquiring it
“Just a few years ago, enterprises were trying to get machine learning up and running. Now they’re realizing the importance not just of data quality, but data diversity,” said Dave Menninger, SVP & Research Director at Ventana Research. “Nearly 80% of the participants in our Machine Learning research are working with external data to enrich their models. The challenge is how to access that information easily and keep it up to date.”
Explorium stands out as a singular solution to enterprises’ data dilemma. Its External Data Platform analyzes data models, searches its wide collection of thousands of external data signals and automatically discovers the most relevant signals to improve analytics and machine learning. Data scientists and business analysts can quickly enrich their predictive models with external data, benchmark the boost in performance and deploy the models with just a few keystrokes, with the assurance that all data is compliant with current regulations.
Since the start of the pandemic, Explorium has doubled its customer base and more than quadrupled revenue. Companies like BlueVine, GlassesUSA.com, Melio and PepsiCo use Explorium to enhance AI models for use cases including lead scoring, identifying default risk and fraud and upleveling analytics such as demand forecasting and customer lifetime value.
“Machine learning is key to our competitive strategy, and external data is what powers it,” said Elad Zoldan, Head of Data at Melio. “Before we started using Explorium, we had to search for data source by source and strike separate deals with different providers. It wasn’t a scalable or flexible solution. With Explorium, we have a universe of external data at our fingertips, and an incredibly efficient way to figure out what data will make the biggest impact.”
In addition to its ML Engine for automated external data discovery and feature engineering, Explorium has released Signal Studio, a new product that enables data and business analyst teams to quickly find and integrate the most relevant external data signals to their analytics pipelines.
“We’re seeing data become the new differentiator,” said George Mathew, Managing Director at Insight Partners. “AI and machine learning are already table stakes. Everyone has them. Competitive advantage will depend not just on the quality of your models but on the diversity of data fueling those models, making Explorium a unique proposition for data scientists and analysts alike.”
“As we saw last year, machine learning models and tools for advanced analytics are only as good as the data behind them. And often that data is not sufficient,” said Maor Shlomo, CEO at Explorium. “We’re addressing a business-critical need, guiding data scientists and business leaders to the signals that will help them make better predictions and achieve better business outcomes.”
About Explorium
Explorium provides the first External Data Platform to improve Analytics and Machine Learning. Explorium enables organizations to automatically discover and use thousands of relevant data signals to improve predictions and ML model performance. Explorium External Data Platform empowers data scientists and analysts to acquire and integrate third-party data efficiently, cost-effectively and in compliance with regulations. With faster, better insights from their models, organizations across fintech, insurance, consumer goods, retail and e-commerce can increase revenue, streamline operations and reduce risks. Learn more at www.explorium.ai
About Insight Partners
Insight Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software ScaleUp companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight Partners has invested in more than 400 companies worldwide and has raised through a series of funds more than $30 billion in capital commitments. Insight’s mission is to find, fund, and work successfully with visionary executives, providing them with practical, hands-on software expertise to foster long-term success. Across its people and its portfolio, Insight encourages a culture around a belief that ScaleUp companies and growth create opportunity for all. For more information on Insight and all its investments, visit insightpartners.com or follow us on Twitter @insightpartners.
