US-listed analytics company Alteryx buys Sydney AI startup Hyper Anna

Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven startup Hyper Anna has been acquired by NYSE-listed California analytics automation firm Alteryx.

The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Alteryx (NYSE: AYX) has a market cap of more than A$6.9 billion.

Founded in Sydney in 2015 by Natalie Nguyen and Sam Zheng, the data science startup delivers business insights to companies from their organisational data.

Zheng left the business in 2018 to start AI recruitment startup Curious Thing.

Hyper Anna‘s code-free platform lets non-technical users access AI-driven insights. Its customers include the NBN, CommSec, Microsoft, Westpac and Deloitte.

The venture raised $16 million in a series A round in 2017, led by Sequoia China, with participation from IAG Firemark Ventures and existing backers Airtree Ventures and Westpac-backed Reinventure. It also had a $1.25 million seed round in October 2016 backed by Reinventure and AirTree as it looked to take its AI products global.

Nguyen, Hyper Anna’s CEO, said the partnership that will help customers take their business to the next level.

“The Alteryx vision aligns so genuinely with what we set out to do at Hyper Anna and I could not be more excited to see where we can go from here,” she said.

“Over 7,000 customers love the Alteryx analytics automation platform because it helps them unlock new value from their data. By now working together with Alteryx, we can offer capabilities that are far greater than the sum of its parts – the Alteryx offering that customers know and love but with more insights, visualisations and reporting features that enable every team to create recurring impact.”

Alteryx CEO Mark Anderson said the acquisition solves the common problem of  “too many dashboards, not enough insights”.

“Hyper Anna’s mission to enable everyone, regardless of analytical background, to access data insights aligns perfectly with the Alteryx vision to enable every person to transform data into a breakthrough,” he said.

“With this acquisition, we are thrilled to offer a joint solution that empowers our customers to derive world class, human insights that matter, adding value to every line of business time and time again.”

Hyper Anna employs 29 people and operates in a range of international markets.