Data science startup Datatrics came out of stealth mode this month with a new open data analytics platfom. We interviewed CEO and ‘data magician’ Bas Nieland about the Datatrics strategy.
Datatrics, based in Oldenzaal, was founded in 2014 and StartupJuncture met Datatrics for the first time at websummit 2014 in Dublin. At that time, the company did not have any products launched but performed data science for customers. Almost a year later, the startup is moving away from custom and closed projects towards an open platform.
What does the platform do and who is it for?
The platform works as a plug-and-play tool, easily connecting internal- and external data sources. Channels such as webshops, email applications, social media accounts and Google Analytics can be used. Datatrics enriches these with open data such as the weather forecast, traffic, search trends or economical data. The data from these sources is then analysed and the special algorithms turns it into actionable insights for marketeers that can be immediately implemented. We call these insights Next Best Actions. These are small cards, telling the marketeer exactly what to do to make the most out of their marketing efforts. These cards give concrete advice on whom to contact, about what product, on what day, time and through which channel. This way, marketing efforts are made more personal and relevant than ever.
Who are the current beta customers of the platform?
Some companies that used the pilot version are Siemens, Leen Bakker and Schiphol Airport. We have received a lot of feedback from them to create the platform as it is today. The private beta version they used was more focused on giving predictive insights via visual representations of the data. However, our clients felt that we could make these insights more concrete and relevant, for both user and customers. That led us to develop our Next Best Actions and give the users concrete advice on who to contact, when, at what time and with what content, making marketing efforts more relevant for customers.
How is Datatrics funded? Any plans to raise additional funding?
We are self-funded and already generating revenue from current clients. We are looking for strategic partners to be able to realize our international ambitions.
Last year you went to Dublin for Websummit. What was the most important benefit of Websummit? Any plans to visit this year?
We got a lot of useful feedback from potential clients and entered into new valuable partnerships. We’re not planning to go this year due some other events, for example the Wolves Summit in Warsaw.
Did it take you longer than expected to launch the platform? What was the biggest challenge?
Our biggest challenge was probably simplifying our platform. Predictive analytics is still a new and complicated subject, but we think we have managed to create a platform that is easy to use and opens the world of predictive analytics to every marketing team.
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Photo provided by Datatrics