Big Squid

About Big Squid

Big Squid, founded in 2009 by Chris Knoch, is a predictive analytics and automated machine learning software company. The company originated in Atlanta and later expanded to Salt Lake City. Knoch, with 20 years of startup experience, including a significant period at Omniture, founded Big Squid after Omniture's acquisition by Adobe. Initially, the company focused on implementations for Domo, becoming the first partner to do so and completing over 400 implementations. This experience led to the development of their own predictive analytics platform after recognizing a significant need in the market.

The company's core offering is its no-code, automated machine learning (AutoML) platform, known as Kraken. This platform is designed to make predictive analytics and machine learning accessible to business users and decision-makers who do not have a data science background. Kraken automates various data science tasks, including data preparation, algorithm selection, model deployment, and hosting. It allows users to build predictive models, explore "what-if" scenarios, and forecast key business metrics to inform decision-making. The platform helps businesses discover insights and correlations within their data, essentially helping them find the "hidden gold" stored in their collected information.

Big Squid operates in the big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning software markets. Its business model is centered on its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, which augments clients' existing analytics capabilities. The company serves business decision-makers, data analysts, and data engineers by providing them with tools for diagnostic, predictive, and prescriptive analytics. This approach allows organizations to leverage their data for future trend analysis and project planning without the need for specialized data scientists.

In September 2021, Big Squid was acquired by Qlik, a data analytics and data integration provider. The acquisition aimed to enhance Qlik's augmented analytics suite by integrating Big Squid's no-code AutoML and explainable AI capabilities. Following the acquisition, Big Squid's technology was rebranded as Qlik AutoML. Nick Magnuson, who joined Big Squid in 2015 and became CEO in May 2020, led the company through this acquisition and now serves as a Senior Director at Qlik.