A Gartner study indicates that a staggering 80% of data initiatives struggle to provide business value. Surprisingly, the biggest challenge behind this low success rate has nothing to do with technology. Over 90% of Chief Data Officers report culture as the most significant bottleneck in companies getting value out of their data initiatives.
Finnish AI startup Ellie.ai is on a mission to reverse a troubling trend. It was founded to lead the market for data product design and collaboration tools.
In a recent development, Ellie.ai has netted a €2.5 million seed funding round in a significant milestone in its journey. The investment round was co-led by Newion and Crowberry Capital (that recently backed SNERPA Power and Lucinity).
With this funding, the company is developing new workflows for its customers, making Ellie accessible to more people across the organisation, and giving them the tools to design great data products with ease. The team is committed to empowering its users and is passionate about helping data teams understand and validate their product ideas swiftly.
“If we look at the Modern Data Stack there are hundreds of tools to help you automate, build, and document your data architecture. Despite this, the percentage of data projects that provide a clear return on investment hasn’t changed. People get lost in their complex data tools and stacks. We believe the most productive data products start from people, culture, and the need to drive better collaboration across the organisation,” said Johannes Hovi, CEO and Co-founder at Ellie.ai
“You can think of Ellie as “Figma for data teams”, an easy collaboration platform, but designed specifically for large-scale data initiatives. From template-based brainstorming workflows to seamless integrations with other tools, and ease of use of a modern collaboration platform – where everything is connected, easily shareable, and secure,” explained Hannu Järvi, CSO and Co-founder at Ellie.ai.
“Meeting Ellie we found a team that had decided to approach the data world from a unique angle. They put the needs of humans before the needs of the computer. The opportunity to democratise how data is being used and understood within the enterprise is something we’re very excited about,” noted John Sjölander, Partner at Newion.
Jenny Ruth Hrafnsdottir, Founding Partner at Crowberry Capital, added, “Ellie.ai is a standout startup in the data space. Their drive to reshape how enterprises manage their data initiatives aligns with our commitment to support startups that redefine their markets. We’re thrilled to back Ellie.ai on this exciting journey.”
Data product design and collaboration software
Ellie.ai was founded by Jari Jaanto and Johannes Hovi in 2019 in Helsinki to lead the market for data product design and collaboration tools. It empowers global businesses to better understand and validate their data product needs before building costly data pipelines.
The company has developed a technology-supported Data Product Design workflow designed to enhance collaboration between businesses and data teams more effectively than previously possible. Since its debut, the company has witnessed significant growth and has over 50 enterprise customers worldwide.
