Tresata Inc. is keeping its eye on aggressive growth plans. The predictive-analytics software firm is looking to double its headcount year over year and have an office on every continent within the next two years.
These changes are happening as Tresata moves into its second decade, said Brittany Box, the firm's chief sales and marketing officer.
Tresata is one of four Charlotte-area unicorns (a private company with a valuation over $1 billion). The firm has a global client base, with offices already in North America, Europe and Asia. New offices, of which Box said there is no specific number, will have a similar culture and aesthetic to its Charlotte headquarters.
"I think what we've seen is, even though it is a digital and remote world, at the end of the day, people are people and they want to have a face to go with a name and meet in person. Having a physical presence across all of the continents is really to better service our customers and prospects going forward," Box said.
She said Tresata's latest hiring projection is likely on the conservative side.
However, Tresata's team of approximately 100 employees is small compared to other companies of its caliber. The intent is to stick with a smaller core team. It doesn't want to be a company with thousands of people, Box said.
As part of growth, Tresata this summer launched BADaaS, or Bad Actor Discovery as a Service, to identify and prevent financial crime such as money laundering. The artificial intelligence-powered product is Tresata's first mass-market product available via mobile. It uses publicly available data to expose hidden relationships in networks that could be harmful to an enterprise. BADaaS is free. It is an example of how Tresata wants to make data usable at absolute scale, Box said.
The product pulls from legal, corporate, offshore leak and sanctions data.
Tresata ran a beta test for BADaaS in the early summer with about 100 participants in banks, law offices, accounting firms and others. It rolled out completely in August. So far, users are predominantly banks, Box said.
She said the company is using its own customer profits to support this product, although there could be future opportunities for external capital.
Tresata's products have been leaning in to societal challenges. Last year, it launched the HEALTHi app to determine Covid-19 risk on a county-to-county basis. In early 2020, the firm also launched the Covid Active Transmission (COAT) app to identify Covid-19 hot spots. Tresata is moving away from vertical-specific products as its software has use cases across industries.
"When you've made data usable ... you can do some pretty powerful things with that, and that's both on the I'll call it offense side and the defense side," Box said.
Next up for Tresata is a marketing-related product based on getting to know customers and giving them a more personalized experience. The name has not yet been released, Box said. It is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2022.
