Boston Becomes Quantexa's Data Centre of Excellence

Quantexa, a London-based big data and analytics startup, is establishing a data science and network analytics center in Boston and aims to hire about 20 workers in the coming months. The company will target clients in sectors including financial services, oil and gas, government, telecommunications and transportation. Its Boston hub will be based of out of a WeWork co-working facility. Quantexa employs four in Boston now, and company founder and CEO Vishal Marria aims to have 25 employees in the city by year-end. "Boston will become our center of excellence and almost a hub for data analytics and data engineering," Marria told the Business Journal. Marria was previously an executive director at Ernst & Young, where he developed programs guiding banks to use technology strategy as part of anti-financial crime initiatives. He launched Quantexa in 2016 and landed a $3.3 million funding round, led by global banking giant HSBC Bank plc (NYSE: HSBC) and London-based Albion Capital Group LLP, that closed in March 2017. The company just signed a network analytics contract with Shell Oil Co., the U.S.-based subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, to further the oil and gas giant's understanding of its business-to-business customers. And earlier this spring, Quantexa landed contracts with HSBC and another major London-based institutions, compliance technology and data company Arachnys, to combat money laundering and other financial crimes. "Network analysis is an approach to better understand the context of your customer," Marria said. "It's all around how do you make better decisions - if those decisions are around financial crime, if those decisions are around credit risks, if those decisions are around sales and marketing. Building a context of your customer becomes really powerful, so you are able to make better decisions." In Boston, Quantexa will be based out of a WeWork for the time being, but Marria is open to leasing an office locally. He also hopes to establish relationships with local universities, such as MIT and Boston University. "The local universities have a strong pedigree in data science and data analytics," Marria said. "We're hopeful that with the capabilities and cool technology that we have, that they would be open to working with us around this network analytics." Beyond Boston and its London headquarters, Quantexa has operations in Brussels and New York. Marria is targeting future locations in Toronto, followed by Charlotte and Washington D.C., in 2019. Quantexa generated $6.5 million in its last fiscal year, and Marria anticipates annual revenue of $15 million this year - about half of which will come from North American clients.