According to the old saying, data is the new oil. Today, a startup that helps companies extract it is announcing a significant funding round to help expand its business.
Atheneum is a platform that allows companies to conduct and analyse research sourced via virtual interviews and surveys with stakeholders. This means that research solutions include qualitative expert consultations and big data products to analyze the results.
Mathias Wengeler, CEO, stated that the company plans to use the funds for expansion geographically, to hire more people for its teams and to build out its technology. Atheneum is currently used by approximately 500 large companies with customers in life sciences, investment services, strategy consulting firms, telecoms and media. The network includes 680,000 experts, so-called opinion leaders, hundreds of thousands of interviews, and hundreds of thousands more.
It was founded in Berlin 10 years ago. The company now has a second office in New York and is profitable. Guidepost Growth Equity led the funding with participation from unnamed restricted partners. Existing investors Crosslantic Capital Management and Michael Brehm; Vogel Communications Group; Atheneums founding management group also participated in this financing. This is a great opportunity to capitalize on the startup's strong growth, particularly in the past year. Wengeler stated that the company experienced a nearly 50% increase in its revenue in 2020, while it grew by 80% in 2019.
Two trends in enterprise are driving Atheneum's growth.
This is the first step in a larger shift towards digital transformation, which we have been witnessing since Covid-19's enforced remote work practices. Companies need tools that allow them to continue working in virtualized formats. Atheneum created a framework that allows those who have previously sourced data via live interactions to continue doing so using tools such as Zoom, online surveys and cloud-based analytics. This will enable them to better understand and read all the data.
A second trend is that companies who make strategic decisions based upon data and feedback from the field are more inclined to seek out innovations in data science, technology and overall to increase their ability to access more data.
This second trend is a long-standing one and has been in the making for many years. It predates the pandemic. Investors have been knocking on their doors because these trends go beyond the purely circumstantial ones. These are trends that could evolve if/when we return to more traditional work patterns. Marta Margolis and Ammad Ahmad, Wengeler's co-founders (pictured above), all had previously worked in management consulting. Wengeler stated that Atheneum was created to address this opportunity.
He said that primary and raw data are already available, but their importance is growing. The firsthand experience of a doctor can have a significant impact on the strategy of a pharmaceutical company for commercialization. This is different in every country. We needed more market research and raw data as the world became more globalized. Atheneum is a platform for knowledge. It's a one-stop shop for primary research.
Roshen Menon, who was responsible for the investment in Guidepost, said that it is also an indication of how companies have evolved to create more specialized products.
He said that the shift from secondary research to primary research is fundamental. Companies want to conduct their own research. The second trend in the wider research tech sector is the long-term and broad approach to research. The world has become more specialized. Let's do a survey to understand the problem.
Life sciences have seen a shift away from blockbuster drugs towards specialized research, medicine, and treatment for so-called "orphan diseases". There is more to this across all industries. Atheneums services allow customers to access insights and data from all kinds of data.
This platform can be presented as a SaaS-styled cloud service. It combines technology and human interaction to better suit the needs of clients.
This will lead to a growing number of competitors to Atheneum who will look to expand their reach and use their tools to explore the research as a service area. This could mean more activity from direct marketing and survey companies like MailChimp or SurveyMonkey, as well as companies like Saleforce and Microsofts LinkedIn who want to create a wider range of tools that help people do their business more efficiently.
Google and other companies, who have focused their surveys on responses from consumers that are sold to advertisers units (you might have seen these ads on YouTube), but have the opportunity to create more cloud-based services for their growing customer base that could better leverage their AI and big data capabilities. Wengeler stated that LinkedIn is one of the most active and interesting players in developing new tools that could directly compete with those it creates.
However, it is a huge opportunity. Atheneum cites Deloitte figures that indicate the current value of the intelligence and data market at $22 billion.
Atheneum has been relatively quiet due to its lack of capital and the fact that it is focusing on its growth and clients business. It isn't disclosing its current valuation to this end. Wengeler, however, confirmed that the startup has raised less than $20m previously and that this latest investment will give new backers a minor stake, with the founders remaining as the largest shareholders.
Menon, who will be taking a seat on the board with this round, said in an interview that Atheneum makes well over $50 million annually.
