InfoSum Ltd., a British analytics startup backed by $8 million in funding, today burst onto the scene with a new platform built to address one of the biggest challenges that enterprises face when trying to extract insight from their information.

Large-scale analytics projects typically require combining records from multiple sources to piece together the full picture. However, integrating differing datasets is a tedious process that can take weeks and often creates privacy concerns when personally identifiable records are involved.

InfoSum claims that its platform enables companies to complete the work in as little as a few minutes by automating key steps. Dubbed Link, the software can ingest records that use different formats and iron out any inconsistencies that may exist in the way individual details are organized. This might mean that one dataset, say, represents users’ age with their date of birth while another contains simple numerical values. 

On top of harmonizing records, InfoSum said, its software can also bring together data points that pertain to the same person but are stored in different records. Then once the preparation stage is over, Link’s privacy mechanisms kick into action.

InfoSum said the software uses a homegrown technology called Quantum to “irreversibly” anonymize data and turn it into a high-level statistical representation. The fact that information is exposed only in aggregate form means individual user records are shielded from prying eyes. But for added measure, Link also inserts some statistical noise into the results before they’re made available to analysts.

Infosum sees the technology coming in handy in several different areas. A company’s marketing department, for example, could use Link to augment its customer data with user records from a partner firm without the risk of violating potential privacy regulations. That can be even more valuable in industries such as healthcare and finance that are governed by particularly strict data management laws.

Image: InfoSum