Fractal Analytics raises $200 M in round led by Apax Partners at $500 M valuation

Fractal, the big data and and analytics company, has raised $200 million from investment firm Apax Partners. Reports suggest with this round, the company will now be valued at $500 million. According to a statement releasted by Apax, the firm has taken a 'significant' minority stake in the company. Fractal Analytics, founded in 2000, is a global provider of AI to several Fortune 500 companies.

The transaction, which consists of a secondary stake acquired from existing shareholders and a primary investment in the business, is expected to close by February. The funds will be used to primarily accelerate growth both through M&A and organically. The team also aims to invest further in AI products and research.

Srikanth Velamakanni, Co-founder, Group Chief Executive and Executive Vice-Chairman of Fractal Analytics, stated, “We are making progress on our goal to build a $1 billion-revenue company in the AI space, thanks to our relentless focus on serving Fortune 500 companies globally in enabling an AI-led digital transformation in their businesses.”

Fractal works with the likes of the $80-billion Proctor & Gamble on their digital-first initiatives and the Indian company leverages P&G’s analytics platform to give insights to business leaders to make real-time decisions across the market.

Rohan Haldea, Partner at Apax Partners, said, “The data and analytics sector is attractive and growing rapidly as companies increasingly see it as a core strategic function of their business. We are delighted to partner with Fractal Analytics who are extremely well-regarded in this space due to their cutting-edge advanced analytics and AI capabilities which help their blue-chip client base solve complex problems. Srikanth and Pranay have done an excellent job building a differentiated company with a clear vision. We look forward to working with them to scale the business further.”

With Fractal Analytics, Apax Partners has made a dozen investments in the tech services segment. The firm has experience in partnering with several tech businesses like GlobalLogic, EVRY and ThoughtWorks.

Pranay Agrawal, Co-founder and CEO of Fractal Analytics, said: “The demand for AI is surging across the enterprise. Our AI solutions and globally recognised team of experts empower these organisations to realise and maximise their full potential. The investment from the Apax Funds will accelerate our ability to scale and meet this rising demand globally.”

Shashank Singh, Partner at Apax Partners, said: “We are keen to partner with successful companies, like Fractal Analytics, that have become global leaders. Fractal’s strong culture, which fosters employee engagement and innovation, has played a significant role in driving its success. Notably, its ability to attract high-quality data science and engineering talent has allowed the company to stay at the forefront of the rapidly-evolving analytics space.”

According to Gartner, the BI and analytics market is in the final stages of a multi-year shift from IT-led, system-of-record reporting to business-led, self-service analytics. As a result, the modern business intelligence and analytics (BI&A) platform has emerged to meet new organisational requirements for accessibility, agility and deeper analytical insight.

In 2015, Fractal acquired two startups to help it build natural language processing and deep learning capabilities. Prashant Warier, Founder of Imagna Analytics, is now Chief Data Scientist at Fractal, and is known to have pioneered work in machine learning and AI. Imagna’s research in AI will add to the IP of Fractal.