Empowering Anyone to Make Faster, More Intelligent Decisions
Recently, while I was in London on business, I took a break to check in on one of our customers: Liberty London. In case you’re not familiar with this luxury department store (which was established in 1875 and is considered one of the top 10 London department stores) imagine a Tudor-revival style building filled with cutting-edge fashion and homeware from some of the most celebrated names in the fashion industry.
I asked to be introduced to the store manager, and that’s how I met Zaid Mahdi.
“Have you heard of Pyramid Analytics?” I asked.
What he told me next made my day.
“Omri,” he said, as he pulled his mobile phone from his pocket and pointed to an interactive dashboard on the screen. “I wouldn’t be as successful in my job without the Pyramid platform.”
Zaid went on to describe how he used Pyramid every day to track inventory and better understand buying patterns. He shared how he was able to make faster, more intelligent decisions with the insights he got from our platform.
As a CEO and co-founder, I don’t often get to see the direct impact we have on the people who use our platform every day.
This is what I call a “magical moment,” an unexpected encounter that seems to compress all the meetings, long nights, and flights into one singular a-ha moment that makes everything clear: our vision is becoming a reality.
Helping Customers Elevate Their Analytics Game
At Pyramid, our vision is to automate the decision-making process to empower anyone to make faster, more intelligent decisions. Our north star is helping our customers elevate their analytics game. We get energized by the innovative business intelligence and analytics leaders who work so hard to drive the adoption of data-driven decision-making and have a relentless desire to make data an essential driver for every decision.
For the last few years, we’ve been hard at work focusing on developing our award-winning decision intelligence platform, building a best-in-class customer experience (our CSM and services teams and learning, and certification program), sharpening our go-to-market strategy, and hiring top talent.
Accelerating Our Path to Become the Next Analytics Leader
Today, I am thrilled to announce we closed an oversubscribed Series E funding round of $120 million, exceeding our target by $20 million. This brings our total funding to over $200 million and puts our company on an accelerated path to becoming the next analytics leader.
This Series E round includes seven investors led by H.I.G. Growth Partners, a U.S.-based global alternative investment firm with over $48 billion of equity capital under management. H.I.G. has made its mark in the technology investment community by recognizing and investing in companies with explosive growth potential. The round also includes three other new forward-thinking investors: Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings, Kingfisher Capital, and General Oriental Investments.
Returning investors include Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), Sequoia Capital, Viola Growth, and Maor Investments. Notably, JVP is the visionary venture capital firm that has been instrumental in building some of the world’s largest companies and facilitating 12 IPOs on NASDAQ. This includes Qlik, an early entrant in the business intelligence market launched in the United States by JVP.
Collectively, these investors are committed to helping us accelerate into hyper-growth mode by capitalizing on the company’s first-mover advantage in augmented analytics capabilities and the decision intelligence category. They believe in our vision, our differentiated technology, and our immense market opportunity. They share our view that the analytics market is ripe for innovation and that Pyramid is poised to become the next analytics leader.
The Demand for Data-Driven Decision Making is Growing
Our world has changed in amazing ways. There is more data available for analytics than ever before. More people are interested in making decisions with data. More sophisticated analytics are in demand.
The proof is in the numbers: worldwide spending on big data and business analytics (BDA) solutions reached $215.7 billion in 2021 and the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for global BDA spending over the 2021-2025 forecast period will be 12.8%, according to a new update to the Worldwide Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide from International Data Corporation (IDC).
The whole reason we use data is to make faster, more intelligent decisions. Yet enterprise analytics is stuck in the past. Friction is everywhere: inconsistent reporting, paralyzing complexity, frustrating wait times, and cost overruns. Too many people struggle with disjointed tools for data prep, business analytics, and data science that are too complicated for most people to use. This results in slow decisions, no decisions, or bad decisions. We’re on a mission to change that.
Helping BI & Analytics Leaders Overcome 3 Big Challenges
For those innovative leaders who are working hard to elevate their analytics game so they can act faster, innovate faster, and capitalize on opportunities faster, we are here to help. We believe it’s time to break free from the past and completely rethink how we approach analytics.
Many leaders talk about analytics being a strategic investment. In reality, most organizations have invested in a mix of disjointed tools for data prep, business analytics, and data science using a siloed, departmental or project-based approach. Some business intelligence and analytics leaders may hesitate to replace their current business intelligence and analytics tools, not because they are meeting their business needs, but because of a reluctance to change vendors due to politics or past relationships. But many are starting to recognize that the costs of a chaotic decision-making environment are too high and it’s holding them back.
People want and require access to data to make faster, more intelligent decisions. These include not just the C-suite and not just the technical crowd, but employees on the front lines—the analysts and managers who are trying to solve problems every day—and external stakeholders like customers, partners, suppliers, and vendors. Decision intelligence empowers anyone to make faster, more intelligent decisions. And that can change everything.
These are the three major challenges we help BI and analytics leaders overcome:
- Delayed time to insight because data is difficult to access or IT needs to move it first,
- Slow adoption because tools are too technical for non-technical people to use, and result in poor experiences,
- High costs and complexity that result from having multiple tools for data prep, business analytics, and data science, resulting in a disjointed pipeline and inability to meet the growing demand for more sophisticated analytics like predictive and prescriptive analytics.
The moment has arrived: decision intelligence is what’s next in analytics.
Decision Intelligence is the Next Big Innovation in Analytics
Applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) across Data Prep, Business Analytics, and Data Science is what separates decision intelligence from traditional business intelligence tools such as Microsoft Power BI, Qlik, and Tableau. AI lowers the skills barrier by automating the highly technical work needed to prepare and analyze data and create and share reports and dashboards.
For those who aren’t familiar with our award-winning platform, here is a brief overview. Pyramid delivers data-driven insights for anyone to make faster, more intelligent decisions. It provides instant access to any data, enables AI-guided governed self-service for any person, and serves any analytics need, from the simple to the sophisticated. By uniquely combining Data Prep, Business Analytics, and Data Science with AI guidance in a single environment, the Pyramid Platform reduces cost and complexity while accelerating growth and innovation. This enables a strategic, organization-wide approach to business intelligence and analytics.
Our employees are energized when they hear about all the different types of people who use our unified, complete, and super-fast platform that uses AI guidance to make strategic decisions and operational decisions, improve revenue and identify new revenue streams, and boost productivity by saving time and money. One of our customers recently told us they saved $1.2M per year in analyst time because they’ve cut their backlog of one-off requests by 50%. One indirect benefit that isn’t often discussed is the ability to boost the morale of the analysts because they can focus on more strategic work and help the company elevate their analytics game, instead of working on time-consuming, pain-staking work that doesn’t challenge them to learn and grow as analysts.
Anyone Can Be Empowered to Drive Innovation
Our employees are motivated by our customers who use data-led insights to make decisions to improve their operations, including the 6,000 caregivers at Philadelphia Healthcare who are improving client experience, driving innovation, building an intelligent organization, and empowering a virtual workforce despite skills shortages and rising healthcare costs.
We just hosted our first Executive Advisory Board meeting last month with an impressive group of CIOs and business intelligence and analytics leaders who shared their vision for the future of analytics and how Pyramid can become an even more strategic partner. I‘m grateful for our innovative customers like Siemens, VW, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs, TFG, St. Joseph’s Health, Philadelphia Healthcare, Liberty London, London Stock Exchange, CRU, Deloitte, and to the more than one million decision-makers globally that rely on Pyramid to make faster, more intelligent decisions.
Also, our network of partners and resellers is rapidly expanding. We are an AWS ISV Certified Partner (and a new member of the AWS ISV Accelerate Program), feature key SAP Certifications (SAP BW/4HANA, SAP HANA, and SAP Netweaver), and have strong regional partnerships with organizations such as Snap Analytics, Delaware, Carahsoft, and more.
Analysts such as Gartner, BARC, Dresner, 451 Research (part of S&P Global Market Intelligence), ESG, and others highlight our ability to deliver unmatched capabilities and value across numerous use cases in any vertical. Notably, Pyramid ranked highest among 20 companies for the Augmented Analytics Use Case in the 2022 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Analytics and Business Intelligence (ABI) Platforms report.
Making Strategic Investments to Be the Decision Intelligence Category Leader
The $120-million round will be strategically invested to accelerate Pyramid’s first-mover advantage in augmented analytics capabilities and the decision intelligence category. Read the news release and FAQ to learn more.
- Investing more in our Decision Intelligence Platform to maintain a technology advantage over legacy business intelligence tools such as Microsoft Power BI, Qlik, and Tableau.
- Expanding our global geographic presence and growing our market share through our partner ecosystem.
- Delivering the best experience for our prospects and customers, including learning, certification, and community.
- Becoming the greatest employer brand in analytics to effectively hire, reward, and retain the best talent.
Looking Forward to More Magical Moments
One of my favorite messages I get from my team is when more people within a customer account are requesting access to our platform. It confirms my strong belief that this is a movement. Everyone makes lots of decisions every day. Why not empower anyone who is interested in using data-led insights to act faster, do their job better, and drive innovation?
Decision intelligence can empower anyone with insights to make faster, more intelligent decisions with an automated, governed self-service experience, or through distributed reports and dashboards, or through the system or applications they use every day with the power of embedding, but without the need to move data. Decision intelligence is designed to support any person who is interested.
Decision intelligence supports the strategic decisions made by C-suite leaders at large and mid-size companies who are looking to upgrade from static reports to dynamic dashboards and who want to drill deeper into their data with a single click.
It supports the daily operational decisions made by tens of thousands of caregivers at organizations like The Department of Veteran’s Affairs who are caring for veterans while improving their operational performance.
And it supports store managers like Zaid Mahdi at Liberty London who are making decisions to improve the performance of their stores and delivering better customer experiences with insights directly from their mobile phones.
The Stars Are Aligned as We Accelerate Our Journey
At no time in our company’s history have the stars aligned so perfectly. With a competent and experienced leadership team, a product team driving the development of our innovative Decision Intelligence Platform, a customer-focused Go-To-Market team, and investors who see the promise of our vision, technology, and market opportunity, the future is bright.
Pyramid is poised to become the next big name in analytics. I invite you to join me on this journey.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Pyramid Closes Series E Funding
Oversubscribed $120 Million Round Will Finance Innovation, Market Expansion, Talent Acquisition, and Customer Experience
WHAT ARE THE DETAILS OF PYRAMID’S FUNDING ANNOUNCEMENT TODAY?
Today Pyramid Analytics (Pyramid), a pioneering decision intelligence platform provider – next-generation business analytics for the enterprise – announced that it has closed an oversubscribed Series E funding round of $120 million, exceeding our target by $20 million.
HOW MUCH VENTURE CAPITAL HAS PYRAMID RAISED TO DATE?
Pyramid has raised $211 million, inclusive of the Series E investment announced today.
WHAT IS THE COMPANY’S VALUATION?
The value we are focused on is the powerful, differentiated value we deliver to Pyramid customers and partners. This outcome is our priority.
This Series E funding round puts Pyramid on an accelerated path to becoming the next analytics leader. The $120 million round will be strategically invested to drive hypergrowth by accelerating the company’s first-mover advantage in augmented analytics and decision intelligence. We won’t go into more financial details at this time.
DO YOU HAVE PLANS TO TAKE PYRAMID PUBLIC?
Yes, in two and a half to three years. But our north star is customer adoption, not a particular financial KPI. Financial metrics are important, of course, but we feel that growing a satisfied customer base is the KPI that matters most. And that doesn’t just mean customer count. More customers are always better, but we want customers that come back and say, “Pyramid delivered on its promises. We want more of our people to have access to the power of decision intelligence.”
WHO ARE THE INVESTORS IN PYRAMID’S SERIES E ROUND?
The Series E round was led by H.I.G. Growth Partners, a leading global alternative investment firm with over $48 billion of equity capital under management, and three other new investors: Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings, Kingfisher Capital, and General Oriental Investments.
Scott Hilleboe, Co-Head, H.I.G. Growth Partners, has been given a seat on the Pyramid Board of Directors. H.I.G. Growth portfolio companies represent leading companies in the SaaS, eCommerce, Healthcare, and Technologies industries throughout North America, Europe, and Latin America.
Returning investors are Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), Maor Investments, Sequoia Capital, and Viola Growth. Notably, JVP is a visionary venture capital firm that has been instrumental in building some of the world’s largest companies and facilitating 12 IPOs on NASDAQ. These include Qlik, an early entrant in the business intelligence market, launched by JVP in the United States.
WHO ARE THE COMPANY’S FOUNDERS?
- Omri Kohl, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
- Avi Perez, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder
- Herbert Ochtman, Executive Vice President, Business Development and Co-Founder
WHAT DOES PYRAMID DO?
Pyramid is a pioneering decision intelligence platform provider. Decision Intelligence is what’s next in analytics. The Pyramid Decision Intelligence Platform delivers insights for anyone to make faster, more intelligent decisions. The Pyramid Platform provides instant access to any data, enables automated governed self-service for any person, and serves any analytics need, from the simple to the sophisticated. By uniquely combining Data Prep, Business Analytics, and Data Science with AI guidance in a single environment, the Pyramid Platform reduces cost and complexity while accelerating growth and innovation. This enables a strategic, organization-wide approach to Business Intelligence and Analytics. More than 1 million decision-makers rely on Pyramid to make faster, more intelligent decisions.
WHERE IS PYRAMID LOCATED?
Pyramid Analytics is incorporated in Amsterdam and has regional headquarters in global innovation and business centers, including London, New York City, and Tel-Aviv. Our team lives worldwide because geography should not be a barrier to talent and opportunity.
HOW LARGE IS THE TOTAL ADDRESSABLE MARKET FOR BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE AND ANALYTICS PLATFORMS?
Worldwide spending on big data and business analytics (BDA) solutions was forecasted to reach $215.7 billion in 2021, an increase of 10.1% over 2020, according to a new update to the Worldwide Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide from International Data Corporation (IDC). The forecast also shows that BDA spending will gain strength over the next five years as the global economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for global BDA spending over the 2021-2025 forecast period will be 12.8 percent.
WHAT IS DECISION INTELLIGENCE AND WHY DO COMPANIES NEED TO ADOPT A DECISION INTELLIGENCE INTEGRATION STRATEGY?
Decision Intelligence is the fast-emerging, next big innovation in analytics that will accelerate data-driven transformation. There is more data available for analytics than ever before. More people are interested in making decisions with data. More sophisticated analytics are in demand.
Decision Intelligence is designed to speed up insights, scale adoption, and simplify analytics. More people want and require access to data to make faster, more intelligent decisions. These include internal and external non-technical stakeholders. Decision Intelligence empowers anyone to make faster, more intelligent decisions. And that can change everything.
WHAT ARE THE ESSENTIAL TECH TOOLS REQUIRED FOR DECISION INTELLIGENCE?
The next major innovation in analytics is Artificial Intelligence (AI). Applying AI across Data Prep, Business Analytics, and Data Science is what separates Decision Intelligence from traditional business intelligence tools such as Microsoft Power BI, Qlik, and Tableau. AI lowers the skills barrier by automating the highly technical work needed to prepare and analyze data and create and share reports and dashboards.
451 Research recommends in a recent study that enterprises, “Select a decision intelligence platform with a gamut of analytical functionality to assist the organization in making more informed decisions of various types – including forward-looking, proactive and actionable ones since they are fundamental to effective decision intelligence.”1
The Pyramid Decision Intelligence Platform delivers data-driven insights for anyone to make faster, more intelligent decisions. The Pyramid Platform provides instant access to any data, enables automated governed self-service for any person, and serves any analytics need, from the simple to the sophisticated. By uniquely combining Data Prep, Business Analytics, and Data Science with AI guidance in a single environment, the Pyramid Platform reduces cost and complexity while accelerating growth and innovation. This enables a strategic, organization-wide approach to Business Intelligence and Analytics.
HOW WILL THE FUNDS BE USED?
The $120 million round will be strategically invested to drive hyper-growth and make Pyramid the next Analytics Leader by accelerating the company’s first-mover advantage in augmented analytics capabilities and the decision intelligence category. Pyramid will allocate funds to:
- Continuously innovate the Pyramid Decision Intelligence Platform to best serve the business analytics needs of our customers, continue to define the emerging decision intelligence market, and maintain a technology advantage over legacy business intelligence tools such as Microsoft Power BI, Qlik, and Tableau.
- Expand the company’s global geographic presence, capture a larger share of the Total Addressable Market for analytics, and increase Channel partnerships with complementary technology companies, independent software vendors (ISV), consulting firms, value-added resellers (VAR), and systems integrators (SI).
- Enhance the Pyramid customer experience with unmatched service and support, learning and professional certification, and networking and community.
- Become the greatest employer brand in analytics to effectively hire, reward and retain the best talent, including customer success, marketing, sales, and software engineering and development.
WHAT ARE SOME KEY INDICATORS OF PYRAMID’S MARKET TRACTION?
- 100+ percent year over year increase in annual revenue.
- 2,450 direct and indirect customers in every major industry.
- 1+ million decision-makers rely on Pyramid to make faster, more intelligent decisions
- 120% net customer retention.
- 1st in Augmented Analytics in Gartner Critical Capabilities for Analytics and Business Intelligence Platforms, 2022, besting 19 competitors, including Microsoft Power BI, Qlik, and Tableau.
