Cloud BI Firm HG Data Raises $2M
Santa Barbara, Calif.-based HG Data, a cloud-based business intelligence (BI) and analytics specialist, is preparing to venture into new territories with a $2 million infusion of capital.
EPIC Ventures headed the funding round, which was backed by DoubleClick founder Kevin O'Connor. Software.com co-founders Eric Kanowsky and AJ Rice and Tim Baskerville, former CEO of JupiterResearch, also participated.
In addition to expanding the scope and data acquisition capabilities of its cloud-based BI database, HG Data plans for the funds include taking a little trip overseas. The startup announced that it is making a move into the Asia-Pacific region, a potentially massive boost to the company's BI business.
HG Data's software scours both offline data sources and Web documents to map the connections between businesses, according to the firm. The result is a product that can offer businesses improved lead generation and scoring, marketing automation and market share analysis.
The company's proprietary tech blends Big Data analytics with information from “leading traditional data publishing sources” that the company has inked agreements with. Lastly, HG Data generates reports by having data scientists curate the process. The result, as one of its taglines says, is “actionable Big Data.”
Think of it like LinkedIn, but comprised of businesses and placed under an X-Ray, says HG Data CEO and founder Craig Harris.
“While LinkedIn maps the connections between people in business, HG Data maps the connections between businesses themselves – who sells to whom, who buys what, and who partners with whom. After more than two years of honing our algorithms with feedback from top-tier technology suppliers, we are ready to scale our data distribution to the long tail of business-to-business intelligence applications,” said Harris in press remarks.
As HG Data has discovered, venture capitalists can't get enough of startups that leverage Big Data technologies.
February was a particularly big month for Big Data deals. DataXu announced that it raised $27 million for big data marketing on Feb. 7. A few days later, on Feb. 11, Sailthru's Big Data personalization tech earned it $19 million in VC funds. Elasticsearch made news on Feb. 20 when it was revealed that it attracted $24 million in financing to advance its open source Big Data search technology.
March was also off to a good start. Anaplan, a San Francisco-based enterprise modeling and planning startup, announced on March 5 a $30 million haul. The company's cloud-based platform employs proprietary tech, Big Data-guzzling in-memory systems and flexible analytics engines to allow “citizen developers” to generate sophisticated models.
Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.
Pedro Hernandez contributes to Enterprise Apps Today, and 11Press, the technology network. He was previously the managing editor of Internet.com, an IT-related website network. He has expertise in Smart Tech, CRM, and Mobile Tech, Helping Banks and Fintechs, Telcos and Automotive OEMs, and Healthcare and Identity Service Providers to Protect Mobile Apps.
