We’re thrilled to share that Black Swan Data have recently closed a $18.5M growth fundraising round which adds Oxx Capital to our existing investors: Albion VC, Blackstone, Mitsui and Lloyds. It’s an incredibly proud moment for us both, and the Black Swan team.
It seems like only yesterday that we were shooting the breeze over a beer in Toronto when we first came up with the idea of connecting disparate social data sources to better predict consumer behaviour.
It took us a few years to narrow our focus and find our product/market fit, but we can now safely say that our vision has come to fruition and our technology is helping pioneering brands to anticipate what’s next and innovate more effectively. In that time, we’ve gone from strength to strength—and we can’t wait to see what the future holds in store.
Our investors
We’re incredibly excited to partner with new investors Oxx for this next chapter and are hugely grateful for the continued support our existing investors have delivered.
Oxx is renowned for its B2B SasS expertise, having invested in—and advised—multiple EU- and Israeli-based tech companies. They bring experience in helping high-growth tech companies like us, expand into the US market, making them ideal partners as we seek to expand our focus in this region.
We’re delighted to welcome Philip Edmondson-Jones, Principal at Oxx, to the board and continue our relationship with Ed Lascelles, Partner at AlbionVC. Phil shares our vision for the future of Black Swan Data:
“The business has made incredible progress over the last few years, and we are delighted to be backing Steve, Hugo and the rest of their excellent team to extend Trendscope’s functionality and expand the business even further into the US market”.
Meanwhile, Ed’s continuous positivity and infectious enthusiasm have played a huge part in getting us to where we are—and will undoubtedly continue to help us moving forward.
“We are delighted to continue supporting Black Swan in this round. It has been wonderful to see the team realise their vision of revolutionising insights through data, and we have been impressed at the rapid growth of the flagship product Trendscope over recent years. We are excited to see the further development of the market that this round of finance will enable,” said Ed.
Our mission
Here at Black Swan Data, we’re changing how companies innovate. Our technology analyses and connects the topics discussed by millions of consumers online to identify today’s top trends and spot tomorrow’s rising stars. We help a range of companies, from PepsiCo (one of the world’s leading CPGs) to Cosnova (a challenger taking on the titans in beauty and cosmetics), to innovate smarter, faster and more accurately than before. We’re honoured to count several global heavyweights, including Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Heinz, Harley Davidson, Henkel and P&G, among our growing customer base.
Trendscope—our flagship product—enables companies to deliver reliably relevant innovation by predicting trends and powering decision making, with an 89% accuracy. It brings clarity on what consumers are thinking, how they’re behaving and what’s around the corner. This scientific foresight capability is crucial in helping brands to navigate increasingly uncertain times and understand what will represent value for consumers in the months ahead. Trendscope also democratises consumer intelligence beyond the market research department, enabling companies to reinvent their innovation processes and create agile new ways of working that save them time and cost.
As Stephan Gans, SVP, Chief Consumer Insights and Analytics Officer at PepsiCo, explains:
“At PepsiCo, Trendscope has been instrumental in the development of new products and staying ahead of mainstream consumer preferences by monitoring data from Twitter, Reddit, and other online sources. During the pandemic, for example, we saw an increase in conversations and posts about seltzer makers and new flavours in lieu of consumers being able to consume their favourite beverages out of the home. This insight helped PepsiCo prioritise and fast-track the development of new products like Bubly Drops to take advantage of this growing territory. Trendscope better enables us to see our categories through the eyes of the consumer and to isolate the emerging trends that will matter tomorrow, versus those that will quickly fade away.”
Our plans for the future
Going forward, we plan on using our latest investment round to:
- Enhance our prediction accuracy (89%) and prediction time period, delivering against our mission to de-risk innovation and inspire growth.
- Expand our data sources/partnerships, ensuring increased coverage and market representation, and investing in R&D to develop new use cases for prediction.
- Roll-out a major upgrade to Trendscope , our most ambitious product release to date. The all new version of Trendscope features a more intuitive UX, enabling users to get their insight and innovation jobs to be done, done!
- Scale our US operations, helping more US-based customers to reinvent their innovation processes and beat the competition.
- Further support the White Swan charity, which uses our technology for free to help patients with rare diseases find a diagnosis.
Our fantastic team
Last but not certainly not least, we’d like to thank all of our swans—both past and present—whose tireless work and pioneering spirit has helped make Black Swan Data what it is today. We are truly standing on the shoulders of giants and couldn’t have done it without you. We count ourselves incredibly privileged to have worked alongside all of you, and we can’t wait for what the future has in store.
Steve King & Hugo Amos
