A Manchester firm which helps businesses grow revenues and profits using artificial intelligence has secured £2.5 million in Series A funding.
Data analytics company Peak has now raised £3.5m in total following the round, which was led by London-based Venture Capital firm MMC Ventures.
It will use the cash to fund the company’s ongoing investment in machine learning and AI technologies and further accelerate sales growth.
“We have seen incredible traction since launching our service in 2016,” said Richard Potter, co-founder and CEO of Peak.
“Our subscription revenues are growing in-line with the fastest growing global tech businesses, which demonstrates just how strong the demand for machine learning and AI technologies is in businesses across the spectrum.
“In that time, we have built an amazing data science and engineering capability, while delivering some incredible results for our customers.
“This round of funding will enable us to further develop both our technology and our team, while accelerating our commercial growth.”
BusinessCloud is holding a breakfast on Tuesday 17th October looking at the growing impact of AI and where the technology might go next.
The event is in conjunction with Entrepreneurial Spark, powered byNatWest, and Pro-Manchester.
Peak’s subscription-based service model helps companies of all sizes use data, machine learning and AI technologies to drive growth.
The previous seed round was led by Manchester-based Praetura Capital and was used to commercialise Peak’s offering and expand its operations, growing the internal team and opening development centres in both Manchester and Jaipur, India.
Peak was founded by Potter, Atul Sharma and David Leitch, who hit upon their idea over a pint in their local pub. The trio had become frustrated with the fragmentation of data services in the market and the associated costs.
They set out to create a platform that combined all the required data analytics services – unifying, processing, modelling and extracting insight – to help businesses grow continuously.
It has worked with The Economist, Morrisons and AstraZeneca, as well as SMEs and technology businesses such as Regit.
It helped the latter grow revenues by 27 per cent through the adoption of predictive analytics.
Mike Fletcher, chairman of Peak and managing partner of Praetura Capital, said: “We took our time to assess the best funding route for the next stage of our growth.
“We wanted an investor with an understanding of B2B SaaS companies and how to scale them globally, as well as having an appreciation for the nascent machine learning and AI sector.
“In MMC Ventures we believe we have found the perfect partner and we’re delighted to welcome them into the company.”
Investing circa £25m each year into early-stage businesses, MMC Ventures is one of the UK’s most prolific venture capital firms.
Jon Coker, managing partner at MMC Ventures, said: “We believe that intelligent use of data will unlock huge value for companies over the next few years, and AI will be at the core of that value release.
“But AI is a noisy space and cutting through that noise to find providers who can really deliver measurable value for their customers is hard.
“That is what Peak’s platform does, and we are excited to be backing Richard, Atul and Dave’s vision for the future.”