Enigma, a Data-as-a-Service company, today announced $95 million in financing to expand its network and platform that connects real-world and enterprise data to power key workflows. Enigma's platform enables organizations to both utilize the data they have and leverage signals from real-world data. The funding, raised since Enigma's last public funding announcement in June 2015, was led by return investor NEA and includes new investments from strategic FinTech investors BB&T, Capital One Growth Ventures, MetLife and Third Point along with leading venture firm Glynn Capital. Early investors Comcast Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Two Sigma Ventures, and the Partnership Fund for NYC also participated.
Enigma was founded on the thesis that incorporating signal from real-world and public data improves how enterprises operate. To enable this, Enigma has built a vast knowledge bank of people, places and companies, grounded in public data, to create a unique map of the world for individuals and enterprises. Building data-rich workflows for financial risk management, compliance, pharmaceuticals and sales and marketing use cases has driven the majority of the company's efforts to date, while the new funding will accelerate its focus on risk, procurement and fraud. Enigma's platform helps the company's partners in the Fortune 500, including BB&T, EMD Millipore, Celgene and Merck, better serve and engage their customers through new, contextualized workflows.
"Most of today's innovative data work is rooted in understanding activity on the internet to support e-commerce and online marketing use cases," said Enigma co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Hicham Oudghiri. "The biggest impact from data will come from understanding real-world connections and bringing these connections to bear on everyday decisions. This is the work we're pioneering at Enigma, and this new capital allows us to double down on expanding our collection of real-world data, new technology offerings and a world-class team, which has fueled our customer retention and expansion to date."
Enigma will use this investment to expand the company's core offerings, focusing on broadening the reach of its knowledge graph technology. Enigma's knowledge graphs, powered by public data and machine learning, structure data into connected insights and are the vehicle through which intelligence is delivered to clients. The company also plans to expand its integrated solutions into new verticals and build on its past successes in the Financial Services, Insurance and Life Sciences industries. To do this, Enigma will invest in growth by continuing to hire top-tier talent and opening the company's first satellite office in order to enhance data acquisition and expand its data integration and delivery capabilities.
The strategic investments from recently launched venture arms at BB&T and MetLife mark inaugural investments by these financial institutions into FinTech, one of Enigma's core verticals. Enigma's success in this space is driven by its focus on building a high-quality, organized data collection and rigorous standardization methodology, helping financial institutions validate and continuously enrich the information they hold in order to combat financial crime, reduce low value and wasted work, and consistently put customers first. As financial institutions move faster to meet and exceed client expectations, companies like Enigma play a crucial role in continually enhancing the connections and intelligence these organizations count on when making the daily decisions that matter most.
"We are committed to continuing our digital transformation by investing in companies, like Enigma, that harness the power of advanced technology and top-tier talent," said BB&T Chief Digital Officer W. Bennett Bradley. "Enigma's real-world data assets and expertise, along with their robust machine-learning capabilities, made them an obvious choice for our first fintech investment. We believe there is more potential for Enigma to enhance other data-driven processes within the company for the ultimate benefit of our clients and shareholders."
"As the inaugural investment for MetLife Digital Ventures, our partnership with Enigma marks a major milestone in our effort to promote a culture of innovation at MetLife and further solidifies our commitment to being a leader in digital transformation across the insurance industry," said Marty Lippert, executive vice president and head of MetLife Global Technology & Operations and MetLife Holdings. "Enigma's technology and machine learning capabilities have the potential to radically shift the insurance value chain by providing trustworthy intelligence to empower smarter, faster decision making."
"With its use of real-world data, Enigma's unique and innovative approach to surfacing insights can be invaluable in helping enterprises understand their business processes and their customers more deeply," said Aman Sharma, Partner at Capital One Growth Ventures. "The breadth of data Enigma brings to bear, coupled with its machine learning prowess, makes it uniquely positioned to uncover new strategic opportunities and create enhanced customer experiences across a range of enterprises and industries."
Supporting Quotes:
"Enigma's expertise in data has helped uncover new ways to combine disparate adverse event data sources for use in our drug safety operations," said Ed Mingle, Executive Director and Head of Global Safety Operations at Celgene. "Enigma's machine-learning approach continues to reveal patterns in how duplicates emerge in Adverse Event reporting systems. Having this capability improves on overall data quality and reduces the potential consequences of working with duplicate data."
"Our first impression of Enigma was that the company had the potential to rewrite the playbook for working with data—in the enterprise and at large," said Scott Sandell, Managing General Partner at NEA. "Three years later, we're seeing that potential realized. We're extremely excited about Enigma's position as a global data pioneer, driven by the company's ability to unify and provide signal from a vast array of data at scale."
About Enigma
Enigma, a New York-based Data-as-a-Service company, transforms disparate, tabular data into rich representations of real-world relationships, providing a trusted source of intelligence about people, places and companies. From evaluating insurance risk to combating money laundering, Enigma connects and enriches clients' internal data assets to transform their strategies and workflows. Leading organizations, including BB&T, EMD Millipore, Celgene and Merck depend on Enigma to power the daily decisions that matter. Enigma was the winner of TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2013 and a graduate of the 2014 FinTech Innovation Lab.
