Orlando-based startup Qualytics has raised a $2.5 million seed round.
Why this story matters: Venture money is a crucial source of funding for tech startups. Plus, capital raised by local tech companies can result in high-tech, high-wage job creation and the development of solutions that help other businesses.
Qualytics, which provides a data quality platform for large enterprises, will deploy the money to scale the business and meet demand from Fortune 500 companies. That primarily means new hires, though Qualytics didn't specify how many.
The quality of data is crucial in a world where companies and organizations rely on data to make decisions every day, said co-founder and CEO Gorkem Sevinc. “Most companies don’t know the quality of their data. In a world of data-driven decisions, insights and innovations, managing the quality of enterprise data at scale is an ever-growing need.”
The fundraising round was led by Atlanta-based early-stage venture capital firm Tech Square Ventures. Qualytics was part of the 10th cohort of Engage, an Atlanta-based innovation group that connects startups with large corporate partners that range from Delta Air Lines Inc. to Goldman Sachs.
Another partner of Engage is Tech Square Ventures.
In the Engage cohort, Qualytics caught the attention of Engage’s corporate partners who wanted to solve their longstanding issues with poor data quality, Tech Square Ventures Partner Bill Nussey said in a prepared statement. “The Qualytics team has built an amazing product to help data teams and subject matter experts manage and collaborate on data quality at scale.”
Along with Tech Square Ventures and Engage, Knoll Ventures, SaaS Ventures and GRI Ventures participated in Qualytics’ seed round.
Previous investors in the company include Loop Capital, Propel Baltimore Fund, The LegalTech Fund, Maryland Momentum Fund, Gaingels and prominent angel investors such as Jake Stein, Bill Murphy, Avi Rubin, Dwight Raum and Patrick McKenna among others.
Qualytics has raised more than $5 million since it was founded in 2020.
Qualytics is commercializing technology that automates the process of catching and separating data anomalies, so companies can address them before they affect any decisions.
The tech evaluates historical data and uses rules laid out by customer companies to assess the quality of data based on eight categories: duplication, completeness, coverage, conformity, consistency, accuracy, volumetrics and timeliness.
Sevinc previously described it to Maryland Inno as a kind of data firewall.
Technology research firm Gartner Inc. (NYSE: IT) last year reported poor data quality costs companies an average of $12.9 million in losses each year.
“Data quality is a consistently growing problem for enterprises of all shapes and sizes, and Qualytics’ machine learning-first approach to managing rules and workflows associated with quality of data within the ever-growing complexity of the enterprise data ecosystem is already showing great impact with early customers,” said Qualytics board of advisers member Bill Murphy, who is a former chief technology officer of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE: BX).
Orlando companies faced a sporadic fundraising environment this year.
In Q2, metro Orlando companies hauled in the most venture money in any quarter on record: $320.7 million, according to PitchBook and the National Venture Capital Association.
However, the next quarter that total plunged 93% to $22.6 million as economic headwinds slowed venture capital deployment across the U.S.
Richard Licursi, CEO of Orlando-based early-stage venture fund venVelo LLC, previously told Orlando Inno he expected raising early-stage venture money in 2023 to be “exceedingly difficult.”
“Companies with a strong balance sheet, a recurring revenue stream and solid business practices should seize the opportunity to double down and be aggressive in gaining market share, while companies in a weaker financial position should look to their current investors for additional cash to strengthen their balance sheet on favorable terms.”
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