Cape Town-based startup Verascient has raised $1.2 million, about R19.5 million, in its first funding round to help businesses connect information stored across different systems and make better use of it. The funding was led by Founder Collective, with participation from Andrena Ventures, Cambridge Enterprise and Summit Ventures. Angel investors Alan Knott-Craig and Shayne Mann also joined the round.
The company is building technology aimed at a common problem for businesses adopting artificial intelligence: the information needed to make AI useful is often spread across different platforms, databases, spreadsheets and emails.
Connecting information across business systems
Businesses may have customer details in one system, payment records in another and important decisions recorded in emails or meeting notes. Employees can spend significant amounts of time moving between platforms or searching for information before they can complete a task.
Verascient is seeking to address this problem by connecting the information businesses already have rather than requiring them to replace their existing systems. Its platform connects with more than 1,000 business systems and tracks where information comes from, who can access it and how it changes over time.
The potential business impact is significant. By making information easier to find and move between different stages of a process, companies could reduce manual work, improve access to information and allow employees to spend less time searching for data. It could also give AI tools access to more of the information they need to support real business decisions.
The startup is initially focusing on financial services, insurance and logistics, industries that manage large volumes of information across multiple departments and systems. Verascient works with customers to identify processes where its technology can handle parts of the work, including finding information across systems, moving information between different steps and helping employees access answers without searching through several platforms.
The company also sends engineers to work directly with customers. This allows the technology to be adapted to the way each business operates, recognising that an insurance company and a logistics business may have very different processes.
Building from Cape Town for international markets
Verascient was founded by Keagan Stokoe and Emile Ferreira. Ferreira was an early developer at Replit and later completed an MPhil in Advanced Computer Science at the University of Cambridge. Stokoe was part of the founding team at South African fibre company Fibertime before launching Purple Dorm, an AI consultancy.
The company is building its engineering team in South Africa while pursuing customers in international markets. The new funding will support further hiring and continued development of its platform.
The challenge now is to turn the technology into measurable business results. For customers, the value will depend on whether Verascient can help reduce manual work, speed up processes and make information easier to use.
As businesses continue investing in AI, Verascient is taking a different approach by focusing on the information behind the technology. Its success will depend on how effectively it can help companies turn the data they already have into something they can actually use.
