RapidMiner Reloads With $15M From Boston Big-Data Investors

RapidMiner is getting settled in Boston’s tech community, and now it has some local cash to spend as well.

The German-born analytics software company has raised a $15 million Series B financing round led by Boston-area investors Ascent Venture Partners and Longworth Venture Partners. Previous investors Earlybird Venture Capital and Open Ocean Capital, both based in Europe, also contributed to the round, which brings RapidMiner’s total funding to $20 million.

RapidMiner was started in 2006 and bootstrapped itself to profitability before raising its first funding round in 2013. The company’s headquarters is now in Cambridge, MA, and it employs 60-plus people worldwide.

What RapidMiner makes is “predictive analytics” software—that is, software that companies can use to analyze data on a large scale and make predictions for business intelligence. This has become a hot sector in the past few years as the relevant tools have become easier to use for non-data scientists and non-techies.

RapidMiner is riding this wave to bring sophisticated analysis tools to business people. The company’s customers include PayPal, Deloitte, Cisco, and Volkswagen.

Perhaps most interesting is the breadth of industries that are all trying to get a handle on predictive analytics—everything from automotive and banking to retail and telecom. As RapidMiner and its competitors continue to expand, it will be interesting to see how many analytics platforms may emerge as winners.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.