Conglomerate Mitsui was among the investors in a £6.2m ($8m) series B round closed by UK-based data science technology developer Black Swan Data today that also included Albion Ventures and Blackstone.
Founded in 2011, Black Swan has built a software platform called The Nest that helps companies discover more about their customer bases by combining publicly available data with private customer data and analysing it to provide detailed insights.
Mitsui made its contribution to the round in March this year. Junichi Shibuta, general manager of Mitsui’s IT platform division, said: “Mitsui is investing in global business innovation across a variety of key business sectors.
“We believe that the trend towards predictive data analytics will affect all industries and the way they think about corporate strategy, so it is logical that utilising big data will become increasingly more important to maintain and strengthen businesses, which is why we have collaborated with Black Swan.”
The funding will help Black Swan further develop its software and strengthen its senior management. It currently has 240 employees spread across offices in the UK, US, Hungary, Singapore, South Africa and Canada.