Ratan Tata invests in Singapore based startup

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SME Times News Bureau | 25 Nov, 2015
Tata Sons chairman emeritus Ratan Tata has invested an unspecified amount in Crayon Data, a Singapore-based startup.

"Given Tata's experience and knowledge of our key focus verticals, we are excited by his validation of our vision. We hope to tap into his experience as we scale globally and fulfill our ambitions of mapping the world's choices," Crayon co-founder Srikant Sastri said in a statement from Singapore on Tuesday.

As an alumni of the state-run Indian Institute of Management-Kolkata (IIM-K), Sastri and Suresh Shankar co-founded Crayon in 2012 and subsequently raised 10 million Singapore dollars (Rs.47 crore) from institutional investors Jungle Ventures and Spring Seeds in first round (series A) funding.

Tata recently joined Jungle as a special advisor.

"We have always believed in Crayon's proposition. Srikant and Suresh, with their years of experience in marketing and analytics, have a clear vision of the value Crayon can bring to consumer-facing enterprises," Anurag Srivastava of Jungle said in the statement.

Crayon's flagship product 'Maya' is a personalisation engine that empowers enterprises to deliver ultra-personalised choices to their consumers.

"We are developing a global consumer taste fabric, which maps choice across 15 categories, using complex machine-learning techniques and proprietary cognitive thinking algorithms," the statement noted.

Maya also facilitates choice delivery for banking, hotel and digital media verticals.

The startup plans to use the funds for product enhancements (new versions) of Maya and its geographical expansion in key markets like the APAC, Britain, Europe and the US.