Savant Labs: Automation Platform for Business Analysts

Savant Labs Secures $18.5 Million in Series A Funding

Savant Labs, a provider of automation solutions for data analysts, announced its platform launch in 2023. The company revealed on Thursday that it has successfully secured $18.5 million in a Series A funding round, with Dell Technologies Capital leading the investment. Savant Labs positions itself as a competitor to established players like Alteryx.

A Focus on the Business Analyst

Savant Labs differentiates itself through a dedicated focus on the needs of business analysts. Unlike certain other low-code/no-code platforms, Savant’s design prioritizes the workflows familiar to analysts. Its CEO and founder, Chitrang Shah, explains that analysts frequently work within spreadsheets, and therefore, Savant’s user experience is fundamentally built around a spreadsheet-like interface.

The platform’s graphical user interface effectively visualizes the automations and workflows that users define within the spreadsheet environment.

From Machine Learning to Automation

Prior to establishing Savant Labs, Shah contributed to machine learning model development at Lattice Engines. Following the acquisition of Lattice Engines by Dun & Bradstreet in 2019, he departed in 2021 to initiate Savant Labs. He views Savant Labs as a natural progression of his previous work.

As Shah describes it, the earlier work at Lattice Engines centered on sales and marketing applications. However, he recognized a broader market opportunity, particularly within areas like finance, supply chain management, and HR analytics. A consistent theme he observed was a growing disparity between the demand for and the supply of analytical expertise.

Addressing the Analytics Bottleneck

Shah contends that many existing tools are geared towards data engineers, who are often responsible for automating analytics processes. However, a shortage of data engineers frequently creates a bottleneck for analysts. This challenge was initially addressed by companies like Alteryx almost two decades ago, but Shah believes that innovation in this space has stagnated.

“We identified an opportunity to advance this technology,” he stated. “Current customers are actively seeking alternatives, and advancements in technology, especially AI, now enable capabilities that were previously unattainable.”

Industry Validation and Investment

Radhika Malik, a partner at Dell Technologies Capital, affirmed this perspective. “For enterprises, leveraging data is no longer simply a competitive advantage, but a fundamental business necessity. Existing tools are falling short, but the team at Savant Labs is providing a solution,” she commented. “Their investment was driven by their extensive technical background in analytics and their forward-thinking vision for how AI will reshape the analyst experience.”

Key Features and Capabilities

Savant’s platform empowers users to create, transform, and manipulate data using familiar Excel formulas. Furthermore, the service incorporates an AI-powered bot capable of generating formulas on demand.

The platform seamlessly integrates with a wide range of data sources, including spreadsheets in SharePoint, data warehouses, databases, and various SaaS applications. It also provides centralized data access management and standard role-based security controls.

A Distinct Approach to Data Pipelines

Savant Labs is not directly competing with traditional data pipeline companies. Shah emphasizes that their approach is unique, largely due to the platform’s interface. “Users can utilize a drag-and-drop interface to construct data workflows if desired,” he explained. “However, we prioritize enabling analysts to work directly within a spreadsheet interface, with the graphical representation serving as a backend output. This represents a significant innovation.”

Target Market and Future Expansion

Currently, Savant Labs is primarily targeting larger organizations with over 1,000 employees. Shah reports that numerous Fortune 500 companies are already utilizing the service across industries such as healthcare, energy, and insurance. The company intends to expand its reach to small and medium-sized businesses over time.

“My core belief is that analytics should not be restricted to technical users,” Shah stated. “We aim to make analytics accessible to a wider audience while ensuring central teams maintain governance and oversight. Addressing the gap in governance and collaboration is a key priority for us.”

Investment Details

The Series A round also included participation from Vertex Ventures, Cota Capital, Village Global, Bloomberg Beta, West Wave Capital, and Uncorrelated Ventures. To date, the company has raised a total of $29.5 million.