Social media has become the fifth pillar of democracy. Not only does it have a reach that includes more than half of the world’s population, but it has evolved into a platform that often focuses on issues that are missing from mainstream media. The average user is on 9 social platforms, statistics have shown. Thus you can imagine the enormous need for big data analytics, without which, things become cumbersome. The social and digital analytics market in the world is growing at 30% per annum, and it is likely to increase.
The first quarter of the year has seen a host of firms all around the world raise capital through funding rounds, and as the second quarter of the year begins, social media analytics and big data SaaS start-up Circus Social has joined the list. The start-up, which is based mostly out of Singapore and Bengaluru, raised $1 million in a Pre-Series A Round led by Inflection Point Ventures, and other marquee investors based in the US, Singapore, and India, according to a press release.
According to the release, the other investors include “Saurabh Gupta, Director (Data Strategy, Operations & Modernization) – DC OSSE; Ganesh Mohan, Head of Strategy – Bajaj Finserv; Samit Shetty, CEO – Navi FinServe Pvt Ltd, Royston Tay, and Yang Bin Kwok, Co-Founders – Zopim and Srinivasan Venkita Padmanabhan, President and Global Head of Finance – Olam Group.”
Circus Social, founded by IIT Kharagpur and IIM Ahmedabad alumnus Ram Bhamidi and King’s College, London Graduate, Prerna Pant, helps manufacturers and companies get actionable enterprise insights from both social and data in real-time through big data, AI and ML, the release added.
For those who don’t speak technology, this basically means that Circus Social can help companies take out meaningful insights from the data they process, thus enabling them to make better decisions over time. It does so using AI and Machine learning, which means that the data is processed by its own, with minimal human oversight. However, no data science project comes without the need to handle big data, and that’s something that the firm specializes in as well. Over all, it presents itself as a full stack solution to all of a businesses’ data processing needs.
The company plans to use the funds to accelerate the growth in “other geographies,” extend its gross sales, engineering and data sciences teams, as well as to scale new revenue streams, the press release said. It currently has clients across multiple industries in over 15 countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
“Over four billion people are active on social media globally, collectively generating a massive amount of conversations, engagement, and activity every day. Our AI-powered social listening and analytics platform uses big data architecture and AI/ML algorithms to empower companies with comprehensive data and actionable insights in real-time,” stated Bhamidi, who is also Circus Social’s CEO.
Co-founder Prerna Pant added that they looked forward to accelerating their growth “across the region and globally, and scaling our operations and offerings significantly over the next 12 months.”
“The addressable market for Circus Social has reached $7 billion. Circus Social’s SaaS platform for enterprises – its flagship offering – 20/Twenty tracks all available data points and distills them into signals for their clients, empowering companies with real data in real-time,” the release read.
The need for a solution like Circus Social has risen exponentially over the last year, as tech companies produce more and more data thanks to the pandemic. Thus, gaining insights into the habits of their users has become more cumbersome than before, and thus, the potential for a solution like this is enormous.
