‘Decision intelligence’ platform Pyramid Analytics raises $120M

Pyramid Analytics, a so-called “decision intelligence” platform that powers big data analytics for companies like Dell, Deloitte and Volkswagen, has raised $120 million in a series E round of funding.

Founded in 2008, Pyramid Analytics touts its “next-generation” business analytics smarts that go beyond traditional business intelligence (BI) tools such as Tableau and Microsoft Power BI. Its platform leverages AI and a fully integrated toolset that combines data prep, analytics and data science for anyone in a company to derive insights from.

Pyramid’s big pitch is that its no-code approach enables non-technical users within a company to find answers to complex business questions. This includes support for natural language queries and AI-powered analysis that “works directly against the data source” without first having to ingest the data, according to the company.

This means that someone who is preparing a sales report, for example, can request data points such as “show sales by occupation and marital status,” without jumping through hoops.

The Pyramid Platform ships with numerous pre-built integrations out-of-the-box, including SAP, Snowflake and BigQuery, while it packs built-in “extract, transform, load” (ETL) functionality to help companies collate and standardize their data from myriad sources.

Data intelligence

Gartner recently listed decision intelligence as one of its “top tech initiatives” for 2022, noting that it was a “novel new way for organizations to capitalize on fast-moving data and rapidly changing environments” — ultimately, it’s all about gaining a competitive advantage at a time when companies have more data than they can meaningfully access. AI is the key ingredient in all of this, with Gartner noting that AI-enabled decision intelligence technology will be in place in one-third of all large organizations within two years.

“A lot has been written over the past few years about the huge amounts of data created and digital transformation,” Pyramid Analytics’ cofounder and CEO Omri Kohl told VentureBeat. “The full potential of that data hasn’t been reached because of the gap between available data and accessible data. There’s also the issue of who can access data and the power of analytics for data-driven decisions — the answer is ‘not nearly everyone who should’.”

To tackle the data sprawl, companies typically turn to myriad different tools, from ETL to BI and beyond, which often translates into a messy, centralized setup controlled by a handful of gatekeepers.

“As a result, businesses get many different answers to the same question because people are using different tools and data and doing it in their own departmental bubbles,” Kohl continued. “Centralized control means that data analysts spend a lot of time working through a growing backlog of one-off requests from their non-technical coworkers. Multiple BI tools are too difficult for non-technical people to use. We’re spending time rewriting analytic assets because our data and technology is changing.”

And that, effectively, is where Pyramid enters the fray — it’s designed for everyone and anyone.

“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,” Kohl said.

A number of companies are aligning themselves with the burgeoning decision intelligence movement, including the likes of Sisu Data which recently closed a $62 million round of funding, and Peak, which raised $75 million.

Pyramid, for its part, had previously raised around $91 million from notable backers including esteemed Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Sequoia Capital. With another $120 million in the bank, the company is well-financed to become what it calls the “next analytics leader.”

When pushed on its valuation for this round of funding, a company spokesperson told VentureBeat:

The value we are focused on is the powerful, differentiated value that we deliver to Pyramid customers and partners. This outcome is our priority.

This series E funding round puts Pyramid on an accelerated path to become the next analytics leader. The $120 million round will be strategically invested to drive hyper growth 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.

Pyramid Analytics’ series E round was led by H.I.G. Growth Partners, with participation from Sequoia Capital, JVP, Maor Capital, Viola Growth, Clal Insurance Enterprises Holdings, Kingfisher Capital and General Oriental Investments.