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According to a Markets and Markets report, the global big data market is estimated to grow from $138.9 billion in 2020 to $229.4 billion by the year 2025 at a CAGR of 10.6%. San Mateo-based Incorta is counting on a PaaS strategy to make it big in this highly competitive market.

Incorta’s Offerings

Incorta was founded in 2013 by Oracle alumni, Hichem Sellami, Klaus Fabian, Matthew Halliday, and Osama Elkady. The co-founders wanted to set up an organization that would begin developing a Direct Data Mapping engine and platform. While working at Oracle, the founders realized that there was a massive disconnect between the expected value of data and what companies were actually getting out of it. Traditional approaches and architectures were not helping organizations get the best out of their data collected from multiple data sources. They realized that organizations were investing heavily in data warehousing and implementing advanced projects, but very few of these projects were succeeding due to a lack of the right analytical tools. Incorta was set up with a disruptive vision for what the future of data analytics would look like. It focuses on providing solutions for complex data analysis that have challenged data-driven enterprises, thus allowing them to become more agile and competitive.

Incorta leverages its smart data lake to collect the data from multiple sources. It feeds the data to cloud data storage, puts it in a standard format, and then applies machine learning and predictive modeling to incorporate analytics for business users. Organizations are thus able to access data and collaborate around that data in real-time.

Traditional data projects follow the ETL methodology – extract, transform, load. The process takes data out of one database, modifies it to fit into a format compatible with the target database, and then adds it to the target database. The ETL process also includes flattening the data or building a simple model so the data can be utilized by business users. But the ETL process ends up taking a lot more time, and the users end up remaining stuck on using solutions like Excel to conduct analysis. Incorta, instead, strips out the ETL step. It does not require the data to be flattened and can load the data in the same shape that it was originally generated in, thus accelerating the process.

Incorta’s PaaS Strategy

Incorta is also driving growth by adopting a strong PaaS strategy. The company has partnered with leading data platforms, cloud and software vendors, system integrators, global consulting firms, data, and analytics experts. Incorta, by itself, has not verticalized its offerings. But by opening its platform to these partners, it has allowed them to innovate and build solutions that are focused on certain verticals. Last year, when I met with its CEO Osama Elkady, he mentioned that they had over 50 partners helping them expand their offerings across the market.

Incorta also allows these partners to publish their solutions on an online marketplace called Blueprints. Blueprints offers best practices and pre-built content for accessing, organizing, and presenting data from other database solutions such as Oracle e-Business Suite, ERP Cloud, Netsuite, SAP, JD Edwards, and Salesforce. It includes schemas for multiple functional areas, key metrics, sample reports, visualizations, and sample dashboards that can be installed easily and used with minimum customization. These Blueprints not only help in an accelerated deployment of Incorta’s analytic tools but also help the partners earn revenues.

While Incorta does have enterprise customers, it wants to make data tools available to SMBs. The growing partner base will help it expand its market reach not only to smaller organizations, but also to global markets. Incorta is able to reach customers in Australia, Japan, Middle East, and Europe through its partners without having a sales organization in these countries. 

Incorta’s Financials

Incorta is privately funded so far and has raised $72.6 million in six rounds of funding from investors including Kleiner Perkins, GV, Sorenson Capital, Wipro Ventures, M12, and Telstra Ventures. Its most recent round was held in August 2019 when it raised $30 million in a round led by Sorenson Capital at an undisclosed valuation. Incorta does not share its financial metrics, but claims to be witnessing significant revenue growth.

It competes in a crowded marketplace that boasts of big players like Microsoft and Oracle, and niche players like Alteryx, Tableau, and Domo to name a few. Earlier this year, Incorta announced the hiring of Scott Jones as its Chief Executive Officer. Scott has had extensive experience within Incorta’s market space. Prior to joining Incorta, he was the President and Chief Revenue Officer for analytics company Alteryx. Before that, he was the Senior Vice President of Americas Sales at Tableau Software. Incorta will be counting heavily on his experience to help beat these competitors.