Crayon Data

About Crayon Data

Crayon Data, a Singapore-based AI and big data firm established in 2012, operates with a vision to simplify the world's choices. The company was founded by Suresh V Shankar, Srikant Sastri, Vijaya Kumar Ivaturi, and Aarti Ramakrishnan. Suresh Shankar, the CEO, is a second-time entrepreneur whose previous analytics venture, RedPill Analytics, was acquired by IBM. Srikant Sastri, a serial entrepreneur with a background in digital marketing and M&A, had previously founded ventures acquired by Publicis Groupe and Randstad. The founding team's collective experience in analytics, marketing, and technology shaped the company's direction.

Crayon Data's business model is primarily B2B and B2B2C, providing AI-powered solutions to enterprises in the banking, fintech, travel, and hospitality sectors. The company generates revenue through a subscription and fee-for-service model for its platforms. Its flagship product, maya.ai, is an AI-led personalization platform. It functions as a two-sided marketplace that connects banks and their customers with merchants. For enterprises, maya.ai helps to understand customer tastes and profiles to deliver personalized experiences, which can increase customer engagement and open new revenue streams through affiliate income. The platform is cloud-agnostic and utilizes proprietary AI algorithms and large external datasets to deliver real-time recommendations through APIs across various customer touchpoints without handling personally identifiable information.

The maya.ai platform is modular, consisting of different applications, models, and data services that allow for flexible deployment. It offers features such as customer segmentation, ad-hoc analysis, and strategic planning tools. One of its key components is the 'TasteGraph', which maps millions of data points to understand consumer preferences. The company has secured patents for its technology and has received certifications for information security management. Over the years, Crayon Data has attracted investments from notable figures and firms including Ratan Tata, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Jungle Ventures, and Mitsui. The company has reported significant revenue growth and achieved profitability, with ambitions to expand its user base to 250 million customers.