Above the Trend Line: your industry rumor central is a recurring feature of insideBIGDATA. In this column, we present a variety of short time-critical news items grouped by category such as M&A activity, people movements, funding news, industry partnerships, customer wins, rumors and general scuttlebutt floating around the big data, data science and machine learning industries including behind-the-scenes anecdotes and curious buzz. Our intent is to provide you a one-stop source of late-breaking news to help you keep abreast of this fast-paced ecosystem. We’re working hard on your behalf with our extensive vendor network to give you all the latest happenings. Heard of something yourself? Tell us! Just e-mail me at: daniel@insidebigdata.com. Be sure to Tweet Above the Trend Line articles using the hashtag: #abovethetrendline.
We can start with some new funding news … Treeverse, the creator of lakeFS, the open-source technology that brings streamlined data lifecycle management and version control to data lakes, announced $23 million in Series A funding, which will further accelerate the development and adoption of the innovative solution designed for any enterprise data team tasked with managing petabytes or more of data in one shared system. Dell Technologies Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, and Zeev Ventures led the round … Fero Labs, the Explainable Machine Learning software solely dedicated to the industrial sector, announced the closing of a $9 million Series A round led by Innovation Endeavors, with participation from Deutsche Invest VC. This funding will support Fero Labs in expanding its product offerings to new sectors and ultimately push the industrial manufacturing community forward. The industrial sector has just begun to implement technologies into its processes to reduce waste and increase efficiency and profits … Cube Dev, the open-source company behind the popular Cube.js data tool, announced $15.5 million in funding to scale go-to-market activities and accelerate the development of its first commercial product that helps customers build applications powered by cloud data warehouses with greater speed and flexibility. Decibel led the Series A round with Bain Capital Ventures, Betaworks and Eniac Ventures participating, bringing Cube Dev’s total funding to $23.6 million … Julia Computing, founded by the creators of the Julia high-performance programming language, announced the completion of a $24M Series A fundraising round led by Dorilton Ventures, with participation from Menlo Ventures, General Catalyst, and HighSage Ventures. Also announced today, Bob Muglia, former Snowflake CEO and former Microsoft President of Servers and Tools, will join the Julia Computing Board of Directors. Julia Computing will use the funding to further develop and advance its secure, high-performance JuliaHub cloud platform and to grow the Julia ecosystem. JuliaHub makes it easy to develop, deploy and scale Julia programs and models that data scientists and engineers are adopting at an increasingly rapid pace. In addition to being a cloud computing product in its own right, JuliaHub is a platform for other revolutionary applications, such as JuliaSim for multi-physics simulation, JuliaSPICE for circuit simulation, and Pumas for pharmaceutical simulation product from Julia Computing’s partner company, Pumas-AI … Lunit, a leading AI startup in AI-powered cancer solutions, announced a strategic investment of $26 million from Guardant Health, Inc. (Nasdaq: GH), a leading precision oncology company. The deal, which includes the investment made by Guardant Health and also a groundbreaking collaboration between a liquid biopsy company and a medical AI startup, is intended to help reshape and innovate the precision oncology landscape. Lunit has closed its Series C Tranche B funding round with the investment from Guardant Health. Lunit is expected to file for an initial public offering on the Korean Stock Exchange later this year … Lucata, provider of a next-generation platform for accelerating graph analytics, AI and machine learning (ML), announced it has raised $11.9 million in Series B funding. Leading investors include Notre Dame, Middleburg Capital Development, Blu Ventures Inc., Hunt Holdings, Maulick Capital, the former CEO of SGI, and Varian Capital. Previous investors in Lucata include Samsung Ventures and Irish Angels … Algolia, a leading API Platform for Search & Dynamic Experiences, has closed $150 million in series D funding led by Lone Pine Capital at a post-money valuation of $2.25 billion. The round also includes funding from Fidelity Management & Research Company LLC, STEADFAST Capital Ventures, Glynn Capital, Twilio, and existing investors including Accel and Salesforce Ventures. This latest funding round brings Algolia’s total funding to $315 million.
In M&A news we learned … HP Inc. announced a definitive agreement to acquire Teradici Corporation, a global innovator in remote computing software that enables users to securely access high-performance computing from any PC, Chromebook, or tablet. The acquisition will enhance HP’s capabilities in the Personal Systems category by delivering new compute models and services tailored for hybrid work … AllCloud, a leading cloud professional services company, has acquired Integress, a data analytics company, to extend its expertise across cloud data and analytics and further accelerate its clients’ cloud journeys. Integress founder and CEO, Dave Taddei, is joining AllCloud as SVP, Data and Analytics Practice, North America. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed. AllCloud is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Premier Consulting Partner and a Salesforce Platinum Partner. The firm also has an established data and analytics practice in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The acquisition of Integress enables AllCloud to expand its AWS and Salesforce-centric data and analytics capabilities in North America. As AllCloud clients worldwide evolve and grow along their cloud journeys, increasingly they can rely on AllCloud to help unlock value in their data across Salesforce, AWS and other critical systems.
In people movement news we heard … Jumio, a leading provider of AI-powered end-to-end identity verification and eKYC solutions, announced the addition of Anna Convery as chief marketing officer … Parsec Labs, the fast-growing and innovative provider of enterprise data management solutions, announced the addition of two industry stars to its senior leadership team. Mike Dahle joins as Vice President of North American Sales and will be responsible for building out Parsec’s sales and pre-sales teams. Mike brings over 25 years in sales, holding several sales leadership roles within the data management and storage industry, including EMC, Dell, Pure Storage, and Komprise. Chet Menzione joins as Vice President, Channels and Alliances and is responsible for defining and leading Parsec’s channel strategy. Recently serving as VP of Channels at Komprise, Menzione brings to Parsec over 25 years experience working in the channel … Collibra, the Data Intelligence company, announced the appointment of Madalina Tanasie to chief technology officer. As Collibra’s CTO, Madalina will lead engineering, architecture, security, production engineering, excellence enablement and quality assurance. Madalina has more than 15 years of leadership experience in software engineering, cloud-native distributed systems and process management. Previously, she was the vice president of operations and excellence at Collibra, where she led organizational transformation for product operations and engineering, with a focus on engineering practices, scale and operational excellence. She served as interim CTO at Collibra from March 2021, focusing on strategic planning, streamlining engagement between product management, architecture and engineering, and building a strong and scalable culture across teams … Element announced the appointment of Nancy Flores to its Board of Directors and the expansion of its executive team with the addition of Singh Garewal as Vice President of Marketing and Bill Keeshen as Vice President of Sales. Flores serves as Executive Vice President, Nancy Flores at McKesson, and joins Element’s board as an independent board member … EverC, a global leader in cyber intelligence and risk prevention, announced that Raz Alon, PhD has joined EverC as Director of Artificial Intelligence (AI). At EverC, Raz is responsible for further developing the company’s machine learning and AI solutions, which were created to help identify the hidden risks in ecommerce and protect financial businesses … Drishti Technologies, Inc. (Drishti), whose AI-powered production technology uses video analytics, data and insights to bring significant benefits to manufacturers and their employees, has named Gary Jackson as its chief executive officer. Jackson succeeds Dr. Prasad Akella, founder and chief executive officer, who will transition to chairman of the board and chief strategy officer. Akella will continue his industry pioneering role in setting the direction for the emerging category of action recognition, which is deriving data and insights from video streams using AI, and advancing the fourth era of manufacturing, AI-powered production … CLARA Analytics (“CLARA”), a leading provider of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the commercial insurance industry, announced that it has hired Tom Warden as Chief Insurance and Science Officer. An experienced leader in using data, analytics and AI to solve complex business problems, Warden will apply his skills to oversee CLARA’s scientific, technological and research operations; he will help ensure that CLARA continues to bring innovative products to market that address the greatest needs of the insurance industry. Warden will report to newly appointed CLARA CEO Heather H. Wilson … ionir, the microservices-based Kubernetes Data Services provider, announced Mike Wall as its new chief executive officer. The move comes as the company experiences rapid growth in North America and globally, accelerated by the launch of its CI/CD pipeline acceleration solution. Wall, who has extensive experience leading both public and emerging growth companies, served as ionir’s chairman for several years and now moves to a full-time operating role. Previously, Wall was chairman and CEO of Amplidata, a leading object storage software company, and led its sale to Western Digital. He also served as CEO of storage innovator Atempo and as general manager of Intel’s Storage Division … diwo announced David Collins as Chief Revenue Officer, leading diwo’s global sales and marketing efforts. David joins diwo’s management team and reports directly to CEO Krishna Kallakuri … Deeplite, a provider of AI software designed to make other AI models faster, more compact and energy-efficient, announced the addition of Arun Oberoi to its board of directors. Oberoi is formerly the Executive Vice President of Global Sales and Services at Red Hat, a leading provider of enterprise open-source software solutions … As artificial intelligence (AI) permeates industries across global markets — leading to newfound business value for enterprises and organizations worldwide — SambaNova Systems, the company building the industry’s most advanced software, hardware, and services to run AI applications, is accelerating its go-to-market and category creation strategy with the appointment of the company’s first chief marketing officer, Amy D. Love. With more than 25 years of marketing experience, Love will lead SambaNova’s marketing department and advance its positioning, messaging and go-to-market activities, demonstrating how current and future customers can achieve unprecedented value and supercharge their competitive advantage with AI technology … VAST Federal, a VAST Data subsidiary that helps government agencies modernize their data centric operations with mission-ready storage solutions, announced former CIA Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Gus Hunt has joined as its newest board member. In this role, Hunt will rely on his years of experience in the public sector to advise the company on its continued federal expansion. VAST Federal helps the US federal government and defense organizations unlock the full potential of their data by providing them with the industry’s only cloud storage platform that combines the speed of an all-flash system with the affordability of an archive to quickly analyze and respond to national security situations in real-time. Hunt served as CTO at the CIA from 2008 until 2013, a role that followed his previous stint as Director of Applications Services for the agency. While there, he set the information technology strategic direction and future technology investment plan for the CIA. Hunt now serves as CEO of private consulting practice Hunt Technologies.
In the new customer wins department we heard … Noogata, a global leader in no-code artificial intelligence (AI) data analytics for enterprises, has been selected by mDesign, a top home furnishings e-commerce seller with annual sales of over $250M, to support the drive to increase revenues. Noogata will do this by optimizing the effectiveness and efficiency of its marketing and business strategies in the fiercely competitive Amazon eCommerce marketplace. mDesign will deploy Noogata’s eCommerce library – a comprehensive set of advanced analytics modules (called “AI blocks”) targeting core eCommerce business workflows, which can easily be integrated into mDesign’s internal tech stack and existing business intelligence tools.
In new partnerships, alignments and collaborations we have … WealthIntel and Expert.ai, announce a Strategic Partnership Agreement, whereby WealthIntel’s exclusive and proprietary artificial Intelligence (The “PDCI”) and Expert.ai’s Cogito will be brought together to facilitate groundbreaking innovations in natural language and text analytics required and spawned by the PDCI. The initial focus areas of this Strategic Partnership include using Expert.ai’s Cogito licenses. Working with Cogito, WealthIntel is able to accelerate the development and maximize certain disruptive proprietary aspects of its PDCI specifically as it relates to text analytics and natural language. The Partnership provides great synergistic advantages and creates the basis of a potential long-term collaboration … Scale Computing, a market leader in edge computing, virtualization and hyperconverged solutions, announced a collaboration with IBM (NYSE: IBM) that will help organizations adopt an edge computing strategy designed to enable them to move data and applications seamlessly across hybrid cloud environments, from private data centers to the edge. Scale Computing is delivering on-premises edge computing solutions for applications that are designed to be flexible and intelligent to help address high-availability and resilience … GoodData, a leader in Data as a Service (DaaS) analytics infrastructure, announced a strategic partnership with unified analytics platform provider Vertica. In a newly integrated product offering, GoodData’s Cloud Native (GoodData.CN) analytics platform will connect directly to Vertica’s data warehouse to provide a powerful and scalable solution designed to accelerate the use and application of analytics throughout entire organizations. The partnership is poised to accelerate the adoption of modern Data as a Service in the enterprise and improve business decision-making via real-time analytics … Companies can have treasure troves of data, but if they don’t know how to analyze it, the data is worthless. To bring product analytics to a wider audience, Mixpanel, a leading product analytics company, announced an innovative partnership with Product School, the global leader in Product Management training, to offer a free Products Analytics Certification course to educate course attendees of any age and job level about the “ins and outs” of product analytics. Available for free beginning today at www.productschool.com/analytics, the course is self-paced and fully online, allowing students to learn how to build behavioral metrics from scratch, unpacking complex topics like acquisition metrics, retention metrics, and product experimentation. In addition, all students that complete the course will be eligible to receive $5,000 in Mixpanel credits (new signups only), so that they can immediately put their newly learned tools to work while having access to impactful product analytics information and tools … Beyond Limits, an industrial and enterprise-grade AI technology company built for the most demanding sectors, announced a new partnership with Mitsui & Co., Ltd. (Mitsui) to expand access to Cognitive AI solutions in the Asia-Pacific region. The collaboration will establish digital transformation and AI-readiness consulting services for Mitsui’s clients in Japan and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, in addition to expanding globally. The services will first be deployed with one of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Plants where Mitsui is involved as an investor, utilizing Beyond Limits’ Cognitive AI solution to accumulate operational knowledge, analyze datasets, and boost production efficiency.
Deep Learning Patent Update – provided by Nelson E. (Nick) Brestoff, J.D., M.S. Exec. Manager & Chief Inventor, Intraspexion LLC.
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