NFLabs Aims To Democratize Big Data, Raises $1.5M

Photo Credit: PR, Screenshot - NFLabs

After three years in operation, NFLabs, Korea’s most promising Big Data startup has raised series A funding from Big Basin Capital, Bon Angels and Coolidge Corner investment. The funding of $1.5 million USD will be primarily used to bring the startups big data analytics and visualization software to a global audience.

NFLabs CEO Sejun Ra explained, “the investment will really boost our expansion to North America. We will focus on speeding up data analysis technology by simplifying Peloton’s Big Data collecting, handling, and visualizing processes, as well as increasing sales and marketing activity outside Korea.”

His feelings were echoed by Phil Yoon of Big Basin Capital who stated, “As much as Peloton is receiving interest here in Korea, I hope to see the same great results around the world. We have joined NFLabs to help them with this mission.”

Shinhuk Kang, Co-Founder of Coolidge Corner added: “Since meeting with NFLabs’ founders, Sejun Ra and Munsu Lee, I was impressed by their enthusiasm, sincerity, and specialist abilities in big data.

Opportunities in big data are already huge and growing rapidly. Peloton offers enterprises an incredible opportunity to harness big data and drive their businesses forward. I am convinced that NFLabs will see rapid and sustained success in the near future.”

With the mission of democratizing big data, NF Labs has been building an “industry specific modular big data analytics platform” that aims to put big data analytics into the hands of ‘unskilled teams’ across organizations. The company has addressed a pain point held by all organizations that want to implement big data analysis, namely that it is a niche skill normally undertaken by specialized teams with robust engineering expertise.

Sejun explained that, “the original tools were created by the likes of Google and Yahoo. These tools, while effective, were actually very difficult to use. Unless you were a developer these tools were beyond reach and had to be used by developer teams, rather than end users.”

To tackle this issue NFLabs has developed ‘Peloton,’ a solution aimed at helping companies analyze and visualize big data. The software’s strengths are its capability for analyzing any type of data as well as the wide range of customization, which is suited to individual users’ tastes.

How It Works

Peleton has been developed as a very scalable platform, with a modular service that will can be customized to be very industry specific. For example, they are building a number of templates that are specific to the gaming industry. All users need to do is connect the data flow to Peleton and the results will be generated in real time. There is no need to alter or manipulate the data in any way. There are no upload times. Users can even create their own templates. This enables everyone in the company to analyze big data and tailor Peleton to their specific requirements.

“We are working closely with a number of companies already, helping them to create customized templates for their specific use. These can also be added to the platform in the future, creating a range of off-the-shelf, industry specific solutions,” Sejun explained.

NFLabs already counts domestic telecommunications companies and leading global technology companies as paid up customers of Peloton. In addition, a number of gaming companies, which have strong requirements for managing and analyzing game log data are showing high levels of interest in the service.

Next Steps

It is a testament to the company that they have bootstrapped to this stage, and have already achieved profitability. The next stage is to build out a global sales team that can take their solution to a wider audience. The early stage of this global expansion was achieved when NFLabs was nominated as a top ten Korean startup and given the opportunity to meet investors in Silicon Valley. They met Big Basin Capital at the event.

Sejun previously worked at Acamai Technologies, who handle 20% of internet traffic so he has deep experience of dealing with big data, before tools existed to process and analyze it effectively. He recalled, “a huge range of daily business processes leave behind breadcrumbs of data. The growth of that has been incredibly fast. Traditional solutions can’t handle that and companies have a hard time keeping up.” He went on to explain that it is not feasible to simply expand big data-centric teams and that a longer term approach that could simplify analytics was needed in the market. He believes NFLabs will become a leader in achieving that.

The investment from Big Basin is of particular interest for NFLabs global expansion, as it will help them in two key areas, beyond financing. Their networks in the US will enable rapid connections with clients as well as presenting opportunities for M&A down the line.

Korean startups and their investors face a tough battle seeking exit opportunities in Korea, with around 95% of exits coming through public listing. Sejun believes that by building bridges to the US market he will expose his company to better opportunities in the future. “Some companies can survive in Korea. You can reach $Bs in revenue in e-commerce or gaming. But for software you have to go out. My plan was never to be acquired by a Korean client,” he explained.

No Longer Just Copy-Cats

There has been a perception in the past that Asian startups are only good at copying existing technology. In fact even Korea’s top manufacture, Samsung, has attracted scorn for allegedly following Apple, rather than innovating. But companies like NFLabs are beginning to debunk this. Another example is 5Rocks, a Korean company that was recently acquired by TapJoy in the US.

Sejun explained that as someone who grew up in the west he sees a great opportunity to build a global technology brand from Korea: “I think there is a stigma that startups in Korea are just copy-cats. I think it is why startups are sometimes looked down on, or find it difficult attracting attention in the US and Europe. But these days startups in Asia are buzzing. I think talent is sometimes even better than in Silicon Valley and there is no reason why Asian startups can’t now begin to find global success, instead of just domestic. Asian startups have a lot of grit. That stigma was maybe true five years ago, but now it is changing extremely fast.”

Silicon Valley has a history of startups and is normally in the spotlight when it comes to innovation, along with Israel. But recent stories from Korea, such as Coupang’s $300 million USD funding from BlackRock and Yello Mobile’s $100 million USD round from Formation 8 demonstrate that Korea doesn’t need to start from scratch. I am sure that innovation from Asia will gain in prominence in the near future and the likes of NFLabs look set to lead that charge.

This post was originally published in beSUCCESS