Featured Startup Pitch: Having already secured significant investor backing, IntelligenceNODE looks to take retailer analytics to the next level

By Sanjeev Sularia, IntelligenceNODE co-founder and CEO

ELEVATOR PITCH

IntelligenceNODE is a big data lab helping brands and retailers with pricing and merchandising analytics. With a team that includes a unique blend of data science and retail experts and a motto that says ‘Immunity to Complexity,’ IntelligenceNODE looks to solidify its place in the merchandising analytics sphere with its next generation software that simplifies and streamlines the ecommerce world for e-retailers worldwide.

PRODUCT/SERVICE DESCRIPTION

IntelligenceNODE is a big data firm helping brands and retailers with pricing and merchandising analytics. By using sophisticated algorithms and a proprietary online decision support system, we deliver holistic pricing and merchandizing dashboards through a SaaS offering.

IntelligenceNODE has created a range of tools that allow retailers and brands to understand the right price and the right product, recognize consumer patterns, and engage proactively with the market, allowing our clients to make not only simpler but also more rewarding decisions.

We currently have two main products focused at the retail market:

iN Competitor helps our clients monitor, match, and optimize their catalog and pricing strategies compared to their competitors, in real-time.

iN Optimizer is a revenue optimization engine, which helps automate most everyday merchandising calls with an easy-to-tweak rules-based engine for price elasticity testing, as well as differential pricing calls to accommodate demographic, seasonal, and competitive movement.

These two systems combined allow a full 360-degree view of the market for e-retailers, giving them flexibility to react to market changes in real-time.

FOUNDER’S STORY

This is the fourth startup that I have been associated with. After my stint as the head of research and analysis for a hedge fund trading FX using machine-learning algorithms, I co-founded my first startup focused on pricing algorithms for capital markets. After that, I took on the role of group CFO of two ecommerce companies—Exclusively.In, a luxury multi-brand ecommerce portal, and Sher Singh, a sports-inspired ecommerce private label.

MARKETING/PROMOTION STRATEGY

The product is aimed at any player in the retail universe, ranging from traditional to online brands, retailers, and marketplaces across the world. We currently serve brands and retailers in the U.S., Europe and Southeast Asia. We are looking for mass market expansion through strong sales affiliations with IBM (Global Entrepreneurship Program member), SAP (Startup Focus member), as well as BCG and McKinsey affiliations for product-based support on their retail-based engagements.

MARKET OPPORTUNITY

The rapidly evolving retail environment, from omni-channel to consumer-relevance driven commerce, coupled with the dynamic Millennial shopper and their buying behavior, offers a unique $32 billion and growing annual market for the retail-focused big data analytics market.

We recognized that e-retailers face prevalent problems within the retail ecosystem that inhibit them from optimizing the profit margins through effective strategies. Retail and retail consumers are constantly evolving with relevance-driven buying behavior of the increasingly large numbers of Millennial shoppers—and not enough businesses, small and large, are taking advantage of applying big data analytics to their product and brand strategies. The team at IntelligenceNODE believes that analytics of this kind need to become an integral part of any business to be at the forefront of their industry.

HOW WE’RE UNIQUE

The competitive landscape is predominately U.S.-centric, and most competing firms are also early-stage startups with similar sales maturity curves. We stand apart by providing our clients with a deep product understanding and coverage—which spans over 250 million unique products from 50,000 brands across 800 individual categories, and by covering over 10,000 product-specific attributes, which effectively sets the benchmark in our industry. We also offer a multilingual SaaS portal that helps clients compare competitors across markets, irrespective of the catalog display language.

BUSINESS MODEL

Our typical engagement begins as a limited-time free trial, which converts into a monthly subscription-based SaaS licensing model delivered for a typical 12 month contract. We are currently serving more than 60 clients globally.

CURRENT NEEDS

We were previously funded by Orios Venture Partners, and are currently in the process of finalizing a new round of investment with an already agreed term sheet from one of the world’s largest enterprise technology investors. We believe this round of financing should help us hit a $10 million annualized revenue rate over the next 18 months. Another key expansion is acquiring clients and further strengthening our sales team in the U.S. and Europe.

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HEADQUARTERS: Mumbai