10 Data Analytics Vendors To Watch In 2018

The Ones To Watch

Worldwide spending for big data and business analytics hardware, software and services is expected to grow from $150.8 billion in 2017 to $210 billion in 2020 – a compound annual growth rate of 11.9 percent – according to market researcher IDC.

But that market isn't just growing, it's rapidly changing. Yesterday's tools for developing static reports based on historical data, for example, look downright primitive next to the latest generation of software for analyzing streaming data in real time. Because the needs of data scientists and business analysts are constantly changing, so are the capabilities of the software they use to do their jobs.

Here are 10 vendors worth keeping an eye on in 2018 because they are developing the next generation of big data and business analytics software, pushing the boundaries of the technology and challenging the established players.

Anodot

Top Executive: CEO David Drai

Business analytics vendors have been falling all over themselves to catch the artificial intelligence wave and build AI and machine learning capabilities into their software.

One company that's gained a lot of attention for its efforts is Anodot, a developer of business analysis software that uses machine learning technology to detect anomalies within huge volumes of data and help businesses identify problems and capture new opportunities.

Anodot, founded in 2014 in Ra'anana, Israel, with U.S. headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif., develops software that companies use to identify blind spots in their businesses, analyzing data metrics in real-time to quickly identify anomalies such as a sudden drop in clicks for an online advertisement or a spike in interest in a particular product.

In November the company debuted AI Analytics for Retail, software that online retailers use to analyze data about market presence (search/comparison, sites/forums), product presence (inventory, types, options, product images), site and store performance, customer journey, payment process, shipping process, returns process and more.

In December Anodot said it tripled its revenue over the past year and the startup raised $15 million in venture funding, bringing its total Series B round of financing to $23 million.

Arcadia Data

Top Executive: CEO Sushil Thomas

As networks of Internet of Things devices explode in size, so will the volumes of data generated by those systems. And businesses will be looking for ways to make sense of – even derive insights from – all that data.

Arcadia Data develops native visual analytics software that can examine huge volumes of data stored in Hadoop-based data lakes without the need to move it to other systems, such as a data warehouse. The technology also provides analytical capabilities for streaming data.

Gartner named Arcadia Data, founded in 2012 and based in San Mateo, Calif., one of its coolest IoT analytics vendors in 2017.

In November Arcadia Data launched the Arcadia Accelerate Partner Program to recruit and support resellers, ISVs and systems integrators to work with the company's software.

Cooladata

Top Executive: CEO Dan Schoenbaum

As businesses become increasingly digital, capturing and analyzing customer behavior data is key for developing successful sales and marketing strategies, improving a company's products and services, and spurring revenue growth.

Cooladata, founded in 2012 in Israel and launched in the U.S. in 2017, has developed a next-generation behavioral analytics platform that pulls customer data from a wide range of sources for analysis – everything from websites, online advertisements, in-store systems, mobile applications, CRM and marketing systems, social media sites and more.

Cooladata says its system, with its data unification, analysis and sharing capabilities, makes it possible for businesses to answer questions like "What marketing channels provide the highest ROI?" and "What do customers who upgrade have in common?"

DataRobot

CEO: Jeremy Achin

Data scientists, the people with the skills needed to derive value from big data, are in big demand these days – and in short supply.

DataRobot develops an automated machine learning platform that captures the knowledge, experience and best practices of data scientists and uses that information to build and deploy predictive models much more quickly than previously possible. With those models, analysts can uncover hidden opportunities and predict outcomes from huge volumes of data.

Boston-based DataRobot, founded in 2012, was already gaining attention when in May it acquired Nutonian, another data science software development technology company that focused on time-series analysis modeling.

DataRobot snagged $54 million in Series C financing in March, bringing its total funding to more than $124 million, and has aggressively invested in its global partner ecosystem. In September the company hired Alteryx executive Seann Gardiner as its executive vice president of business development.

Fluree

Top Executives: Co-CEOs Andrew "Flip" Filipowski and Brian Platz

Blockchain technology, originally developed for managing digital currencies like Bitcoin, is essentially a digital ledger that allows information to be distributed, but not copied. It just might be the next big thing as businesses discover blockchain's potential use for a wide range of applications that require ensuring the integrity and security of transactional data.

In November Fluree PBC (public benefit corp.) released a public beta of FlureeDB, a scalable blockchain cloud database that makes it easier for companies and developers who want to integrate blockchain technology into their existing IT infrastructure and business applications.

Blockchain is seen as a key enabler as businesses increasingly run on decentralized applications and Fluree just might prove to be an essential technology if blockchain is widely adopted.

Founded in January 2017 and based in Winston Salem, N.C., Fluree is the brainchild of CEO Flip Filipowski, the founder of Platinum Software, and CEO Brian Platz, founder of SilkRoad Technology.

InfluxData

Top Executive: CEO Evan Kaplan

InfluxData has developed an extensive stack of open-source technologies that together address the challenging problem of managing the continuous flow of time-series data from Internet of Things networks and other systems.

The InfluxData platform offers a range of tools and services, including the InfluxDB time-series database, for real-time processing of time-series data in such areas as Internet of Things, DevOps monitoring and real-time analytics.

San Francisco-based InfluxData, founded in 2012, has raised nearly $25 million in three rounds of venture funding. In August the company was named an advanced tier technology partner in the Amazon Web Services Partner Network.

MariaDB

Top Executive: CEO Michael Howard

MariaDB is the company behind the open-source relational database of the same name that's an increasingly popular alternative to other database software such as MySQL.

MariaDB, in fact, was engineered by CTO Michael "Monty" Widenius and other original developers of the MySQL database. They were concerned about the future of MySQL under Oracle, which acquired MySQL as part of its Sun Microsystems purchase in 2008, and founded MariaDB in 2009 to create a "fork" of the MySQL product line.

The MariaDB database offers a range of advanced functionality including replication and NoSQL capabilities. In May the company release MariaDB TX 2.0, a new release of the transactional edition of the database, and now offers MariaDB AX for data analytics and data warehouse tasks.

The company has headquarters in Espoo, Finland, and Menlo Park, Calif. Alibaba Group led a $27-million Series C funding round in November, bringing the company's total financing to $54 million.

Naveego

Top Executive: CEO Derek Smith

Businesses are heavily investing in big data initiatives for operational and analytical purposes. But those projects may be doomed to failure if they are working with poor-quality data.

Naveego's cloud-based software provides data quality and master data management tools that help organizations monitor and manage the quality of their business data – whether on-premise or in the cloud – and leverage it for competitive advantage.

Naveego, founded in 2013 and based in Traverse City, Mich., launched its first channel program in October and is recruiting data management consultants, systems integrators and managed service providers.

Paxata

Top Executive: CEO Prakash Nanduri

Paxata, founded in 2012, is a big data software pioneer whose software empowers business users to transform raw data into insightful information, instantly and automatically.

The vendor's Adaptive Information Platform is an enterprise-grade, self-service data preparation application and machine-learning system that, according to the company, weaves data into an information fabric from any source and any cloud to create trusted insights.

In the fall of 2017 the Redwood City, Calif.-based company launched its Intelligent Ingest software, an addition to its Adaptive Information Platform that simplifies and automates the process of collecting data from any cloud and in any format for business analysis.

In November Paxata got a boost from systems integration giant Accenture, which designated Paxata a strategic partner and acquired a minority stake in the company. Accenture is also adding Paxata's software to its own Accenture Insights Platform.

Plotly

Top Executive: Founder Alex Johnson

Plotly has developed a number of open-source tools for composing, editing and sharing interactive data analysis and visualization charts, graphs and dashboards via the Internet.

The company, also known by its URL "Plot.ly," is catching on among data scientists and developers who develop analytical applications using the Python and R programming languages (Matlab and Javascript are also supported.)

Founded in 2013 and based in Montreal, Plotly could become a significant competitor to leading data visualization tools such as Tableau, Qlik and Microsoft's PowerBI.