“Given Tata’s experience and knowledge
of our key focus verticals, we are excited by his validation of our
vision. We hope to tap into his experience as we scale globally and
fulfill our ambitions of mapping the world’s choices,” commented Srikant
Sastri, Co-Founder, Crayon.
As an alumni of the state-run Indian
Institute of Management-Kolkata (IIM-K), Sastri and Suresh Shankar
Co-Founded Crayon in 2012 and subsequently raised 10 million Singapore
dollars (Rs.47 crore) from institutional investors Jungle Ventures and
Spring Seeds in first round (series A) funding.
Tata recently joined Jungle as a special advisor.
“We have always believed in Crayon’s
proposition. Srikant and Suresh, with their years of experience in
marketing and analytics, have a clear vision of the value Crayon can
bring to consumer-facing enterprises,” commented Anurag Srivastava,
Jungle.
Crayon’s
flagship product ‘Maya’ is a personalisation engine that empowers
enterprises to deliver ultra-personalised choices to their consumers.
“We are developing a global consumer
taste fabric, which maps choice across 15 categories, using complex
machine-learning techniques and proprietary cognitive thinking
algorithms,” the statement noted.
Maya also facilitates choice delivery for banking, hotel and digital media verticals.
The startup plans to use the funds for
product enhancements (new versions) of Maya and its geographical
expansion in key markets like the APAC, Britain, Europe and the US.
