Fresh investment and client wins accelerate growth at tech firm

Data-as-a-Service company, The Data City, has had a record-breaking 2021, winning 20 new clients over the past 12 months including The Home Office, WPI Economics, The North East LEP and Transport for the North.

The Leeds-based tech firm’s growth has also attracted a six-figure investment from Venturian Funding and Investment Group to support its plans for UK growth, overseas expansion, and the further development of its Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform.

It plans to launch its first international territory in 2022 and is currently recruiting analysts and developers as it prepares to do so.

The business explains that industrial and economic analysis is hampered by the current system of Standardised Industrial Classification (SIC) which – having not been updated since 2007 – underrepresents new and innovative sectors.

The Data City says its own solution overcomes the flaws in SIC through a new AI-driven system of Real-time Industrial Classifications (RTICs), which classifies companies according to the text they use on their websites. It then matches this to Companies House records to allow analysts to understand how and where new types of companies are forming.

The Data City’s primary customers are local and central government and its technology has been used to analyse the UK’s net zero supply chain in the wake of COP26.

Founder Alex Craven said: “We’ve been talking with the Venturian team for some time and we’re delighted to be working with them not only to consolidate our position in the UK, but to expedite our plans for international expansion.

“The Data City has won a series of new clients this year, and our platform is going from strength-to-strength as we look forward to 2022.”

Greg Allsopp, investment director at Venturian, added: “The Data City’s ambitions to become a global solution to the problems of industrial classification are extremely exciting.

“This investment will allow them to develop their technology and grow the team at pace to support their plans for 2022 and beyond.”

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