Local investment firm Circadian Ventures has lured a Silicon Valley startup to relocate its headquarters to Atlanta, a signal of the city's growth as a nationally recognized technology hub.
The venture fund led a $4 million investment in data analytics startup Aginity, now rebranded as Coginiti Corp. Founding Parter Mike Dowdle didn't require the company to make the move but pointed out Atlanta's advantages in cost of living, local talent and diversity of industry. Coginiti CEO Richard Hall was hooked.
For years, West Coast investment firms often siphoned Atlanta startups out of their hometown in favor of more established tech markets, causing the city to lose out on investment and job growth. Atlanta's lack of local venture capital firms was often cited as the city's main obstacle as it tried to establish itself as an innovation hub. That's changing.
“Venture firms are really the glue that holds companies here, but they're also the honey that attracts these businesses," said John Yates, a technology attorney at Morris, Manning & Martin LLP. "Many of them are fearful that if they move out of Silicon Valley, they'll move away from the money."
In 2021, Atlanta gained 17 new venture capital funds that totaled over $1 billion in capital. Dowdle, a serial entrepreneur and investor, is part of that change. He started Circadian Ventures in 2020 because of the lack of early-stage capital in the city. This is the fund's eight investment.
Hall's first introduction to Atlanta’s business community came when his company raised $1.5 million after attending the Venture Atlanta conference. Unlike Silicon Valley, Atlanta had more diversity in industry.
“Silicon Valley used to be the only place to start a technology business, but post-Covid, tech is spreading more widely,” Hall said. “There’s a substantial startup community here in Atlanta, with a couple of unicorns already here.”
Now, Coginiti is setting up its office on the second floor of Ponce City Market, the 12-story redevelopment of a former Sears & Roebuck warehouse along the BeltLine Eastside Trail. The area is a hotspot for tech companies that want to be close to Georgia Tech's Technology Square innovation district and the amenities and walkability the trail brings.
Coginiti plans to expand its sales and marketing team with the investment. The company expects to double its 55-person staff by the end of the year. Most hires will be in Atlanta, and others will work remotely.
Coginiti's mission is to “democratize” data analysis. The company helps non-technical employees create insights on data sets.
In March of 2020, Hall acquired the Chicago-based data company Aginity. Since then, the company’s customer base has doubled every year with its revenue and staff corresponding. To date, the company has 450 corporate accounts and over 15,000 paid subscribers. The company expects another doubling of growth this year.
The strong growth of his company is a reflection of how increasing availability of data has made more companies look internally for their analysis rather than to information technology teams, says Hall, who has worked in the analytics industry for over two decades.
“Data is doubling every two months," Hall said. "When there wasn't as much data, companies could rely on centralized teams, but they can’t anymore. There’s just so much more available to make decisions. Leaders understand using data makes them more effective.”
