Part
01
of one
Part
01
I need a full briefing on the company Featurespace
Hi there! Thanks for your question about Featurespace. The short answer is that Featurespace is a provider of behavioral analytics software, founded in 2005 by Dr. Bill Fitzgerald and David Excell. Below you will find a deep dive of my findings and methodology.
METHODOLOGY
I began my search by identifying what would be a company overview should include. Based on information found on Bplans and your request, I have provided the following for Featurespace: company overview, company history, management team details, board list, and investors. As requested, I have provided extra details on CEO Martina King and investor Dr. Michael Lynch. Any news and other relevant information that I found along my search have been provided in the "news and additional details" section below.
COMPANY OVERVIEW
According to their website, "Featurespace is the world's leading provider of Adaptive Behavioural Analytics technology." Their software is based on the idea that human beings are intelligent and are "naturally programmed to do Adaptive Behavioural Analytics. We intuitively profile the people we know over time . . . so if we spot someone behaving out of character, we reach out to help." Using "Bayesian statistics to model and predict individual behaviour in real-time," Featurespace has programmed computers to understand and predict human behavior with the intention of identifying behavior that is out of character and subsequently identifying any risks that may be involved. Specifically, the software is used for fraud detection and behavioral monitoring in the financial, gaming and gambling, and insurance industries.
Their main product is the ARIC Platform, (3) which "monitors all your customer data in real-time, spotting anomalies to enable you to outsmart risk, protect your customers and increase revenue." The product has many use cases in fraud detection and payment security but is also used for gambling, as with the ARIC Responsible Gambling platform.
Featurespace's clients include online betting exchange site Betfair, National Lottery operator Camelot, and mobile payment company Vocalink Zapp.
COMPANY HISTORY
Founded in 2005, Featurespace is headquartered in Cambridge, England. It was co-founded by Cambridge University Professor Dr. Bill Fitzgerald and David Excell, who was a Ph.D. student at the time. Based on the combination of data science and computer science, Fitzgerald and Excell's respective fields of study, Featurespace was derived from Fitzgerald's contribution "towards understanding the extraction of the 'signal' (or meaning) from the 'noise' in data." From there, Excell developed the technology into the ARIC platform. According to their website, "Featurespace’s Adaptive Behavioural Analytics technology left the Cambridge Engineering Department in 2008 when Betfair asked Featurespace to build the first system to outwit fraud attacks by thinking like each one of their customers." The machine learning ARIC platform was designed with the intention of solving Betfair's fraud problem, which turned out to be a problem for the financial and insurance industries as well.
MANAGEMENT TEAM
martina.king@featurespace.co.uk
Martina King joined Featurespace in 2012. Prior to joining Featurespace, she had extensive experience as managing director of various tech and media companies, such as Aurasma (2011-2012), the world's first visual browser. She was also Managing Director of Yahoo! Europe (1999-2004), and Managing Director of Capital Radio London (1993-1999). She is currently a non-executive director of Debenhams, a major retailer. She has been with Debenhams since January 2000. According to her Crunchbase page, she will be speaking at Money 20/20 EMEA 2017.
David Excell
Co-Founder, CTO
david.excell@featurespace.co.uk
Matt Mills
Commercial Director
matt.mills@featurespace.co.uk
Luke Reynolds
Chief Product Officer
luke.reynolds@featurespace.co.uk
Simon Rodgers
Director of Engineering
simon.rodgers@featurespace.co.uk
Dr. Karthik Tadinada
Director of Data Science
karthik.tadinada@featurespace.co.uk
Martin Hopwood
Senior Financial Controller
martin.hopwood@featurespace.co.uk
Rebecca Amos
Head of Marketing
rebecca.amos@featurespace.co.uk
Stuart Neal
SME Payments
stuart.neal@royalmint.com
stuart.neal@featurespace.co.uk
Gina Krämer
Head of Business Process Management
gina.kramer@featurespace.co.uk
THE BOARD
Gordon Hurst, Chairman
Martina King, CEO
David Excell, Co-Founder and CTO
Dr. Mike Lynch, Non-Executive Director
Dr. Robert Sansom, Non-Executive Director
Gardiner Garrard, TTV Capital
Alex Hook, Nesta
Jon Edington, Touchstone Innovations
INVESTMENT HISTORY & INVESTORS
History: Featurespace's total equity funding is $16.37 million in three rounds from five investors, including Mike Lynch. The first round was for $1.92 million (2012) and the second was for $3.85 million (2014). The most recent round was a $9 million venture led by TTV Capital.
Investors: Featurespace's investors include Dr. Mike Lynch, Dr. Robert Sansom, Gardiner Garrand (TTV Capital), Alex Hook (Nesta), and Jon Edington (Touchstone Innovations). Overall, these investors focus on software and early stage investments.
Non-Executive Director Dr. Mike Lynch: Dr. Lynch has a "scientific background in signal processing and pattern recognition." He is the founder of Autonomy, which was a "pioneer and leader in analysing information for the enterprise, whether in structured or in unstructured format" that was acquired by HP in 2011. According to his biography, "Dr. Lynch is regarded as Britain's most successful technology entrepreneur" and has won the following awards: Computer Weekly's UK IT Most Influential Person of the Year, OBE for Services to Enterprise (2006), and the Chartered Institute for IT's Outstanding Contribution to IT Award (2011). (21) Recently, Dr. Lynch raised $1 billion through Invoke Capital, a software investment company that he founded.
NEWS & ADDITIONAL DETAILS
CEO Weigh-in: 63% approval
Top 3 Competitors: (1) Zoral Labs, (2) GlassBox, (3) NowInteract
--Featurespace employees were recently mentioned in this ITV article discussing how the "Cambridge Cluster" will vote in the General Election.
--CEO Martina King recently spoke at the Megabuyte Emerging Stars CEO Workshop and Dinner about "building partnerships, both during negotiations and once the partnership is established."
--In 2016, Featurespace was ranked in Deloitte's 2016 UK Technology Fast 50 because of "its 389% growth rate over four years [which] has proven that its leadership has the vision and determination to grow in competitive seasons."
--In January 2017, Featurespace hired 11 new employees, bringing their total between Cambridge and London to over 70. After successfully getting a deal with TSYS, a Georgia-based credit card services company, Featurespace has begun "scaling in the UK and looking to set up further US operations."
MEDIA
CONCLUSION
In short, Featurespace is the world's leader in anomaly detection software. Founded in 2005 by Dr. Bill Fitzgerald and David Excell, Featurespace has major players such as Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister Dr. Michael Lynch on its board of directors. Additionally, its CEO has extensive experience as a leader of tech industries. Featurespace will be sponsoring Money 20/20 Europe 2017. (18)
Thanks for using Wonder! Please let us know if we can help with anything else!