Singapore startup raises $10m to help businesses grow using big data with a twist

By Michael Tegos for TechinAsia

Big data analytics startup Lynx Analytics announced today it has raised “just under” US$10 million. The funding comes from an undisclosed “strategic investor,” whose deep understanding of big data led to this deal. The investor values Lynx at US$66 million, according to the startup.

Lynx’s business-to-business services run the gamut, from data analysis and insights to execution based on those insights. Where it differentiates from other big data analytics companies is in using graph theory and a proprietary graph engine in order to process and analyze data from various sources.

Graph theory is used to study graphs, or mathematical structures that display relations between objects. Lynx applies the science to connections between people, events, communities, and more.

The startup came out of a 2010 INSEAD course on how businesses can use graph theory to grow. After the program’s success, the team decided to put their expertise to the test in the field, first by offering consulting services and then by developing its own graph engine to process data.

The focus on telecommunications and financial services clients has allowed Lynx to test and develop its technology at a demanding scale.

The startup is working mainly with telecommunications and financial services companies, and that focus has allowed it to test and develop its technology at a demanding scale.

“Most organizations have massive issues in connecting the dots in their legacy systems to find who their actual customer is,” Lynx COO Sander Swinkels tells Tech in Asia. The challenge is to get various data sources together from many disparate sources a company may have, to form a more accurate picture of their customer. That helps them with things like customer retention and targeted marketing.

Lynx has been growing at a rate of 50 to 60 percent every year and is profitable, with revenue in the “multiple millions,” Sander says. It managed to grow without external funding by putting profits into hiring talent as needed, saving as much as it could, and carefully selecting clients.

“We got approached many times by VCs and big corporates to talk about acquisition or investment, but until now it never made sense because business is still growing,” Sander says. However, Lynx is now at a point where it wants to figure out its next steps and scale more aggressively, building its business globally.

The investment will allow the startup to automate a lot of its processes and develop new products out of the insights it has gained since its inception. It wants to ramp up recruitment of data scientists and engineers who will help it build the necessary tools for reaching new clients.

FIrst appeared at TechinAsia