Bigeye Raises $17M Series A to Automate Data Quality

Automating Data Quality for Machine Learning

The operational aspects of machine learning necessitate high-quality data for model training. Ensuring this quality can often be a protracted and resource-intensive undertaking for companies.

Bigeye, previously known as Toro, is addressing this challenge by providing automated data quality solutions as an early-stage startup.

Series A Funding

The company recently announced the successful completion of a $17 million Series A funding round. This round was spearheaded by Sequoia Capital, with continued participation from existing investor Costanoa Ventures.

This new investment supplements the $4 million seed funding secured last May, bringing the total funding raised to $21 million.

Product Development and Automation

During a conversation with Bigeye CEO and co-founder Kyle Kirwan last May, he outlined plans to utilize the seed funding for team expansion and enhanced product automation.

Kirwan confirms that these objectives have been met. The platform now possesses the capability to autonomously identify crucial data quality metrics for users.

Users can simply designate a table within platforms like Snowflake or Amazon Redshift, and the system will analyze it.

Subsequently, it will recommend the metrics that should be monitored to maintain data quality, and automated alerting has also been implemented.

Focus on Data Operations

The company’s primary focus lies on data operations issues related to model inputs.

These issues include scenarios where tables fail to update as scheduled, rows are missing, or duplicate entries are present.

Bigeye automates alerts for these types of problems, accelerating the preparation of model data for both training and deployment.

Industry Validation

Bogomil Balkansky, a partner at Sequoia Capital leading the investment, recognizes the significance of Bigeye’s work within the machine learning pipeline.

“Kyle and Egor, having led data quality initiatives at Uber, possess a distinct vision for delivering continuous insight into data quality for all businesses,” Balkansky stated.

Commitment to Diversity

As the founding team expands the company, building a diverse team is a central priority.

Kirwan emphasizes the importance of proactively seeking candidates from varied backgrounds and perspectives.

He believes that a diverse team is essential for fostering innovation and building a robust, well-rounded organization.

Availability and Current Clients

Bigeye provides both on-premise and SaaS solutions.

The product is currently being utilized by paying customers including Instacart, Crux Informatics, and Lambda School.

General availability is anticipated later this year.