Over the years, data has helped businesses fine-tune their growth strategies. However, with increased availability of information, companies are often left wondering, “How do you make better sense of the data that already exists?”
Tackling this problem statement is Chicago, Illinois-based startup .
With a team of over 1,000 employees, about 900 of which work in its Bengaluru office, the company says it is going beyond what traditional consultancies, pure-play service providers and IT (information technology) organisations offer in terms of data insights.
Founded in 2016 by Sayandeb Banerjee, Aditya Kumbakonam, and Anuj Krishna, the startup is a hybrid consulting firm that uses data analytics and engineering to solve specific problems for companies. Its team includes scientists, data engineers, visualisation experts as well as analysts and consultants
“The challenges that organisations face now have evolved, the technology and the data availability has evolved, the maturity of an organisation able to handle the data and the information has evolved,” Anuj, Co-founder, TheMathCompany tells YourStory.
Problem solver
The company says it wants to disrupt how consulting firms work, most of which have existed for a while.
“All of them started way back, and for them to quickly revert to the latest needs that customers are asking for, is hard. “ Anuj adds. “The expectation (from consumers) has increased.”
He added that clients want better mathematics — algorithms, models – to improve their metrics and a quicker delivery too. Instead of presentation decks, they now expect tools to understand and implement the changes.
For example, a company trying to determine their marketing spend across channels wants to go beyond a simple model of regression to identify return on investment through different channels to advanced techniques.
This, the founder said, necessitated a new organisation that caters to the needs of customers’ changing interests.
Offerings and business model
“The problem we set out to solve is how do we build a new age services organisation that helps big companies to tackle this challenge of making their data useful, and making better decisions,” Anuj adds
Through its platform Co.dx, the startup helps businesses across multiple industries to solve problems through low code, custom artificial intelligence applications.
“It is a combination of the IP (Intellectual Property) and the people we bring to the table, to provide a service to our customers to solve many problems that they might have – visually, with the use of data,” Anuj says.
The startup says it has more than 45 Fortune 500 or equivalent clients across more than 15 industry verticals. It serves customers across sectors like consumer packaged goods, retail, pharma, automotive, technology, and manufacturing industries in the US, UK, and EU. TheMathCompany declined to share client names due to confidentiality agreements.
Customers follow a service-based pricing model, which covers the cost and how the solutions help them reach goals and solve specific problem statements.
TheMathCompany says it brings data together to understand what the business is looking to answer, and then to apply logic and maths effectively to solve the problem.
However, not all companies have the information collected or organised, which is why the startup begins with an exercise of discovery with its customers. Here, the idea is to craft a solution framework on the basis of available information.
“There is a baseline that most organisations start from. They might be making some choices just based on what they feel like, to go to the next level,” Anuj says.
So, while a lot of companies might not have good data, “it is still better than only using it through feel,” he adds.
“Usually the customers end up having data, but it always sits in various different places,” he adds.
One of the initial tasks is to engineer all of this data together, to make sure it makes sense. It is only after this that the company works on it to generate insights in the form of rules, tools, among other solutions.
The journey
Earlier this year, TheMathCompany raised $50 million in investment led by Brighton Park Capital, a US-based investment firm.
At the time of funding, Mark F Dzialga, Managing Partner of Brighton Park Capital, said “TheMathCompany is positioned for continued success as it strengthens its brand recognition and expands in the US and EU markets, supporting customers on their missions to capture value through data analytics.”
According to Anuj, the capital will be used to expand “our go to market strategy, expand our sales and marketing side of things significantly in the US and in Europe.”
It will also use the funds to strengthen its Co.dx platform, it said in a release.
Prior to this, the company raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a Series A round from entrepreneur and venture capitalist Arihant Patni in May 2019.
“We felt the time was right to continue that growth that we have been on, to get to becoming a leader quickly,” Anuj says.
Apart from consulting firms, companies like Fractal Analytics, LatentView also operate in the same market.
In the last few years, the company claims to have doubled in size and revenue almost every year.
Edited by Affirunisa Kankudti