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Martech startup Nugit will use $5.2m funding from Sequoia for AI investment

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By Charlotte McEleny | Asia Editor

October 6, 2016 | 3 min read

Marketing data platform Nugit has raised $5.2m in funding from Sequoia India, which it plans to use to double its workforce and further invest in artificial intelligence technology.

David Sanderson Nugit

Nugit's David Sanderson on its plans for $5.2m investment

Singapore-based Nugit, which already has 500 brands on board including Johnson & Johnson and Facebook, uses artificial intelligence, natural language generation, and visual design to help marketers generate more usable reports based off the big data generated by advertising activity.

Pieter Kemps, investment advisor at Sequoia, said the team at Nugit and the fast adoption from businesses, publishers and ad agencies were reasons for the investment: “It has been impressive to see the intelligence of the Nugit platform, and how it offers enhanced efficiency and clarity to marketers. Nugit is part of a trend where global SaaS businesses are being built from Asia.”

David Sanderson, founder and chief executive of Nugit, told The Drum that relying on people to analyse the volume of data that’s generated from marketing isn’t scalable.

“Current solutions are not addressing marketing needs in a scalable manner to take data to decision ready formats. Advance technologies such as AI and machine learning will be the key for businesses to stay competitive in the future,” he said.

Sanderson also agreed with Kemps that there is a new trend for global SaaS businesses being built from Asia. Singapore is working to position itself as a place for startups but being an expensive city, it needs to prove its other attributes are worth the cost for new businesses.

Sanderson said that the country has been helpful because it is both business and tech-friendly: “Singapore is the APAC HQ for many of the large media and technology companies, which definitely helps in accelerating our growth.

"It also has a great melting pot of talent and cultures from all over the world, which creates a fun and diverse working environment. In our team we have more than 14 different nationalities from all over the world,” he explained.

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