Big Data Firm Sentience is First for New Fund

Sentience Technology, a start-up big data software firm, is the first recipient of funds from a new London-based incubator program, SeedCloud, which aims to provide companies with services including research, in addition to cash.

Sentience uses patent-pending technology to map the structured and unstructured data sources within client organisations, analyse data and present recommendations; and says early applications are found in human resources, contact centre environments and general unstructured data archives such as email. Founded last year, the company aims to release its software in stages throughout 2013.

SeedCloud, which has helped Sentience to secure £500,000 in funds, aims to distinguish itself by providing 'deep technical expertise and resources to help create a market-ready product'. This expertise covers cloud architectures, mobile and web design, big data analytics, semantic and NLP, plus knowledge of legal and commercial structures. Seed funding will generally come from the Government's EIS programs. SeedCloud's co-founders are former MessageLabs and Notion Capital exec Stephen Chandler and former HP Senior CTO Graham York.

Chandler comments: 'We identified an opportunity in the market to do more than just help raise some start-up capital and act as a sounding board. We roll our sleeves up and really help make the idea come to life, including researching the market opportunity, developing the proposition, creating the technical architecture, resourcing it and helping fund it. The Seed EIS tax incentives available help make this all possible, generating attractive potential returns for investors in what is traditionally a very high risk area.'

SeedCloud says it has 'a strong pipeline of new companies joining the program and significant interest from investors'.

Web sites: www.sentiencetech.com and www.seedcloud.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.