EQUITYZEN USERS COMMUNITY/COMPANIES OVERVIEW
SparkCognition stock — what to expect?
SparkCognition is now a household name and popular in Google queries. On the secondary market (in particular, on the EquityZen platform), SparkCognition deals are now frequently released. Is this a good investment opportunity or not so good? This article will help you figure that out!
I’ll move on to the promised full review of SparkCognition. I’ll start by showing the general scoring of this company, and then I’ll go into detail about each evaluation criterion:)
- in this review, I refer to third-party data that I was able to find and access; I always cite primary sources, which you can access by clicking on the hyperlinks
- I am not responsible for the quality of the data presented on third-party resources
- I guarantee the correctness of the information obtained from official sources, while some data in the document is given as is — according to unverified data from an unofficial source — in this case, the value is preceded by “approximately” ~ and the data itself is written in italics
- I deliberately regard data from some sites as insufficiently reliable, but I use them to reflect general dynamics
- the conclusions and estimates set forth herein represent my personal view only, are for informational purposes only, and in no way constitute financial or investment advice
- the information in this document is not a prediction or guarantee of future results, and I am not responsible for any consequences of the use of the data provided
- investing is a high-risk activity, so potential investors should do their own research before entering into any deals and signing contracts
- this review was prepared for the EquityZen Community for informational purposes only
- I use multi-criteria evaluation for the selected companies by several criteria (each in the range from 1 to 3); I also output the final score and mark “red flags” (especially sensitive facts that could potentially affect future investments); the assessments reflect my understanding of the situation, they are not an incentive to action
Company Scoring
The final score is 14 out of a possible 21. There is one red flag: a score below 4* on the “Culture and Team” criterion.
If we look at each evaluation criterion separately, we get the following results: C-level Executives — 3, Market and Competitors — 2, Investments — 2, Traction & News — 2, Culture and Team — 1, Client Score — 2, Exit — 2.
Each evaluation criterion was scored from 1 to 3.
I personally invest in companies with a scoring of 19 points or more. But that’s just my opinion (this is not financial advice or investment advice).
Executive Summary
- Company: SparkCognition (9 years)
- Founded, Headquarters: 2013, Austin, Texas, USA
- Sector/Market: AI Infrastructure Market, CAGR of 27.3% (2021–2026)
- Investment history: 8 rounds in total, total investment of $286.6M, valuation on the last round (2021) — $1.46B
- Revenues: Estimated annual revenue for SparkCognition is currently $72M
- Probability of exit: no clear signals
- Glassdoor rating: 3.6* (94 reviews)
- Client rating: 4.0* (5 reviews)
SparkCognition Highlights
- SparkCognition is a B2B artificial intelligence technology startup that builds AI technology solutions for industrial applications. A highly awarded company recognized for cutting-edge technology, SparkCognition develops AI-Powered cyber-physical software for the safety, security, and reliability of IT, OT, and the IoT. The company’s technologyis capable of harnessing real-time sensor data and learning from it continuously, allowing for more accurate risk mitigation and prevention policies to intervene and avert disasters.
- Mission: “Our mission is to build artificial intelligence systems to advance the most important interests of our society.” ©
- Featured customers that trust SparkCognition: Airbus, AV-Comparatives, BP, Global Hitss, Hitachi High-Tech Solutions, Hunt Oil Company, Nomura Global Markets, RENEW Energy, etc.
- SparkCognition partners with Lenovo, Microsoft, Siemens Energy, American Electric Power, AWS, and others.
Origins & Offices
The company was founded in 2013 in the USA, headquartered in Austin (Texas).
- Austin, Texas, USA (HQ)
- Austin, Texas, USA
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Social media
C-level Executives
- Founder & Chief Executive Officer (CEO) (June 2013-present)
- Agglomeration of Austin, Texas, United States of America
- Recognized as Austin’s Technology Entrepreneur of the Year and named to Onalytica’s Top 100 Global Influencers in Artificial Intelligence. Amir Husain also won the Austin Under 40 Technology and Science Award in 2016 and was a finalist for EY Entrepreneur of the Year in 2018.
Educated at the University of Texas at Austin (Computer Science, 1996–2000). - Wrote two books: “The Sentient Machine”, “Hyperwar” (co-author).
- Amir Husain has 22 awards and 33 patents, with several dozen more pending.
- Chief Science Officer (CSO) (June 2019-present)
- Agglomeration of Austin, Texas, United States of America
- A two-time Chair of the University of Texas Computer Science Department, Dr. Bruce Porter serves as SparkCognition’s Chief Science Officer, where he leads the company’s many R&D initiatives. Currently, as University Professor, Dr. Porter research focuses on machine reading, a technology that holds tremendous potential for capturing knowledge for automated inference, question answering, explanation generation, and other AI capabilities.
- He has won the Best Paper Award at the National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, the College of Natural Sciences Teaching Excellence Award, the National Science Foundation’s Presidential Young Investigator Award, and the President’s Associates Teaching Excellence Award.
- Chief Technology Officer (CTO) (July 2018-present)
- Austin, Texas, United States of America
- With over two decades of technology leadership experience, Sudarsan has been atthe helm of several complex products and projects, collaborating with global customers on cutting-edge technologies. Previously, Sudarsan was the CTO of IBM Watson Platform and Partnerships, where he led the technology strategy and architecture of the IBM Watson platform.
- He holds over 14 patents in the areas of AI and distributed computing, has published white papers and articles for a variety of outlets, and has been a featured speaker at conferences and universities.
- Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) (August 2021-present)
- Glenview, Illinois, United States of America
- Stephen Gold is an award-winning business leader with experience building technology and software companies and achieving quantifiable results. Recognized for vision, leadership, and bringing a strategic perspective.
- He has extensive professional experience, having previously worked at Honeywell, Cray Inc., HZO, and other companies. Stephen Gold has many proven skills.
C-level Executives Scoring — 3
Qualified (education and experience, awards and regalia) CEOs and tops, known and recognized in their field;
Periodically new cool C-levels come;
High activity of tops in publications, interviews, events, and awards.
Market and Competitors
- Analytics
- Artificial Intelligence
- Cyber Security
- Software
- Machine Learning
The company operates in the AI Infrastructure market.
The global AI infrastructure market is expected to grow from $23.7B in 2021 to $79.3B by 2026 at a compound annual growth rate of 27.3%.
Growing data traffic and the need for high computing power, growing adoption of cloud machine learning platforms, increasingly large and complex datasets, growing focus on parallel computing in AI data centers, and an increasing number of cross-industry partnerships and collaborations are key factors driving the AI infrastructure market. The learning function will grow at a faster pace.
Leaders on the market as a whole:
- Accenture
- Amazon Web Service
- AMD
- Arm
- ASIC
- Cadence Design Systems
- Cambricon Technologies
- Cisco
- Dell
- Google, and others.
SparkCognition is the world’s leading infrastructure-oriented AI company and is also a leader in industrial artificial AI.
Market and Competitors Scoring — 2
Medium/large market with growth prospects + relatively equal positions with several competitors (distributed market — oligopoly);
The company was able to separate itself from competitors or offer a compilation of their technology (or any other competitive advantage) — the advantage of SparkCognition is the combination of cybersecurity and infrastructure management.
Stocks and Investments
Stocks and Investments Scoring — 2
No top funds, but investments are regular (many rounds) and voluminous with an increase in valuation each time (a noticeable increase in the valuation/investment volume multiplier).
Traction & News
All data on revenue is taken from public sources, the reliability of which I do not guarantee. However, based on the approximate revenue growth/decline dynamics, I can draw conclusions about its trends.
- SparkCognition’s Q2 2021 revenue was $63M
- Estimated annual revenue for SparkCognition is currently $72M per year
- 2022/04/28 — SparkCognition partners with The University of Texas at Austin to advance Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Rob.
- 2022/04/21 — SparkCognition hosts world leaders to show the future of AI in business at Time Machine Interactive Event.
- 2022/03/25 — Spark Cognition will acquire Integration Wizards
- 2021/08/03 — SparkCognition welcomes Stephen Gold as CMO and announces changes to executive leadership team
- 2020/05/28 — SparkCognition unveils new Defense-Focused AI Company
Traction & News Scoring — 2
Moderate traction;
The stage of “preparation for progress/breakthrough” (the company is at the stage of long-term preparation for the release of something worthwhile);
There is an active process of scaling, fighting with a large number of competitors.
Culture & Team
I take reviews from Glassdoor and Comparably, where current and former employees anonymously leave company reviews. Sometimes there may be conflicting views, indicating a subjective perception of work at a particular company, rather than an error in review analysis.
A comparative table of overall company ratings:
The general trend of team reviews lately:
Positives based on reviews:
- “The people I work with are also amazing and feel like family to me”
- “Active work environment”
- “Extremely bright and friendly team”
- “Good work life balance”
Negatives based on reviews:
- “This inexperience has created a culture of constant, needless urgency”
- “Leadership appears powerless to rein in his disruptive habits, which, while well”
Red flag: rating below 4*
Culture & Team Scoring — 1
Rating = 4–4.5*;
Too few vacancies in the ratio of the number of employees (less than 10%);
Less than 70% confidence in the CEO.
Exit
- Nothing concrete, but the company has been looking toward an IPO since 2018: “it’s an option, but it’s not the primary motivation right now” ©
Perhaps after a couple of years, that has turned into motivation. - In AHM Amir announced SparkCognition’s IPO is delayed due to market conditions. Probably the end of next year (2023).
Exit Scoring — 2
There are no signals of an upcoming IPO.
Conclusion
A company with a valuable mission, a promising market and a titled leadership, but without stellar prospects.
Without flexible management and the ability to build a strong team, without breakthrough solutions and a thirst for innovation, the company will not be able to break out into market leaders and become super-successful among powerful competitors.
Before you go
Join the discussion of the current situation in the closed Discord group: https://discord.com/invite/8yMBnWB7AX
