Data science startup RapidCanvas Inc. today announced that it closed a $16 million funding round led by Peak XV,.

Titanium Ventures, Accel and Valley Capital Partners also contributed to the investment, which brings the company’s total raised since launch to more than $23.5 million. RapidCanvas was founded in 2021 by Chief Executive Officer Rahul Pangam (pictured, left) and Chief Technology Officer Uttam Phalnikar (right). The duo previously launched Simility Inc., a fraud detection startup that was acquired by PayPal Holdings Inc. in 2018.

RapidCanvas’ namesake software platform promises to automate repetitive data science tasks using artificial intelligence agents. Those are large language models customized to a specific use case. According to the company, its agents can automate up to 75% of the tasks involved in data science projects.

The first phase of an analytics initiative focuses on collecting the data that users wish to process. RapidCanvas provides more than 500 integrations for pulling records from cloud storage services, databases and other information sources. If a connector isn’t available for a system, customers can generate a new one with the prebuilt AI.

A drag-and-drop interface allows users to prepare data for analysis without writing code. RapidCanvas can organize records from different sources into a common file format, remove duplicate items and filter errors. It’s possible to modify data in other ways as well. A worker could, for example, replace a list of product prices with one average price to streamline processing.

RapidCanvas also lends itself to feature engineering. This is the process of organizing data into a form that is easier for AI models to understand.

After completing the initial preparatory work, customers can create multiple versions of the finalized dataset. One version can be used to train AI models while another could be turned into a benchmark for comparing the AI models’ accuracy. A built-in chatbot automates the coding usually involved in such tasks. 

Besides AI models, RapidCanvas can also create data visualizations. A what-if analysis tool allows users to search the data visualized in a graph for new patterns. 

The core feature set is complemented by administrative tools that make it to easier manage deployments of the software. Access controls regulate who can access what feature based on employees’ roles. Under the hood, an autoscaling feature adjusts infrastructure usage based on workload requirements. 

RapidCanvas says customers can apply its platform to a wide range of analytics projects. Inventory planners can use the software to forecast demand for a new product, while a marketing team could identify when customers are at risk of leaving. RapidCanvas also supports industry-specific use cases such as spotting issues in factory equipment before they disrupt manufacturing operations. 

Photo: RapidCanvas