mnAI is a multi-award winning data, insight and analytics platform that provides information on all unlisted companies in the UK. It is the UK’s largest and most comprehensive source of data – a single, unified source that holds 10bn+ data points on 8m+ UK companies. It applies a wide variety of machine learning algorithms and filters so users can access targeted, customised information and insight across industries, sectors and geographies far more rapidly than is currently possible. What has previously taken weeks of manual research can be converted into easily accessible visual data within minutes. It makes everything from deal origination to due diligence and customer search quick and easy.
The platform is used by, amongst others, investors, advisors, corporates, professional services, government and educational establishments to improve their insight and efficiency, to enhance and support their operations across several departments, while at the same time reducing their costs.
It is a comprehensive, easy to use, efficient product at a competitive price point backed by a relentless focus on customer service and innovation.
mnAI goes far beyond what other data platforms can provide. Examples include:
Updates – 100m+ data points are added every week which enable real time insights.
Identifying companies fast -mnAI’s unique company identification CRM lets users search for businesses using customisable criteria, with results produced in seconds. Company data presented visually through interactive maps, charts and networks help teams perform due diligence faster, more easily and more accurately.
Geographic maps – mnAI can collate all sources of company data for specific areas and locations to create visual maps of every UK industry. The visual dashboard presentation can help to identify hotspots for growing/declining businesses, as well as other detailed information by geography.
Visualisation of every UK company network and the people behind them- mnAI provides information about directors and shareholders, their connections and relationships via other companies. This allows users to rapidly uncover complex relationships.
Two recent projects have received considerable attention – Gender Analysis and ‘Project Sniper’:
The entire mnAI dataset can now be filtered by gender. If users want to find out whether a particular company or a group of companies such as investments, customers or suppliers, were founded by women or run by a majority-female board, they would previously have relied on manually curated research. mnAI has now automated the process by mapping every UK company director and shareholder by gender so you can track the gender diversity of every UK company in real-time.
‘Project Sniper’ has solved the problem of consolidating over 25 million multiple, disparate individual records in the vast Companies House database. Consolidating multiple directorships/shareholdings into one easily viewed master profile has enormous potential benefits for due diligence on people and the companies they are involved with.
You can learn more about mnAI, our platform and our data at mnai.tech.
After several years as an entrepreneur, John Cushing, the CEO and founder of mnAI, was working for the Corporate Ventures team at the John Lewis Partnership which had recently acquired one of his businesses. He quickly discovered that there was no existing platform or product that could help him identify potential investment and acquisition opportunities and in particular he really struggled to find anything that had the breadth and depth, let alone the speed, that he needed … and it became an obsession.
From conversations with friends in the industry and through his own research, it became apparent that he wasn’t the only one. From investment professionals to corporate analysts, and Private Equity firms to privately held companies looking to grow through acquisition, the overwhelming response was that most research was nothing more than Google and spreadsheets. Not only was it very manual but it was extremely time-consuming. For example, he estimated that the average length of time it took for a Private Equity analyst to produce a targeted shortlist based on various criteria was 126hrs…..and that was before moving on to the next stage of the process! So, he decided to do something about it.
The journey from inception wasn’t without its challenges. A good example would the size of the opportunity: it would have been very easy to launch both a consumer and an enterprise product but, given the resources available and the relative size of the opportunities, the company needed to focus.
The platform itself was built from scratch through a design-first approach that is both user-friendly and highly scalable. Cutting edge AI technology and listening to current and potential customers was, and still is, key. Accessing the data itself presented significant obstacles and was extremely time consuming – the tech team spent two years aggregating billions of data points and financial records from thousands of different data sources, then used a combination of Bayesian mathematics and Random Forest Modelling to power predictive algorithms, to provide one single, comprehensive, easy to use platform.
The mnAI team has grown steadily and they have been integral to the companies progress. People are hired not just for their talents but also for their cultural fit – they are collegial, transparent, they listen to the customers and each other and always try to do the right thing. Our customers place considerable emphasis on professionalism and integrity and so do we.
In the last two years, like all businesses, mnAI has had to work with the challenges presented by the pandemic but generally it has been a positive for the progress of the business as it has forced a change in people’s perception of how to work. Companies and individuals have had to adopt technologies and platforms that enable home working and give both easier access to information and better ways of sharing it. As a pure tech business mnAI’s entire infrastructure is cloud based so, despite Covid restrictions, we have been able to continue the development of our technology.
CEO and founder: John Cushing
John is our CEO and founder. He is an ardent tech enthusiast and an award-winning CEO/founder who has spent the last 18 years building fast growth, data-driven digital companies in the UK.
Ricky Cowan: Managing Director
Ricky is our Managing Director here in Scotland and is tasked with growing the business in Scotland and beyond. Ricky was heavily involved in growing the reputation and revenue streams of one of Scotland’s fastest-growing legal, property and finance businesses and more recently he sat on the management team targeted with setting up and commercialising the central belt office of a well-known firm of Chartered Accountants and business advisors.
Technology Director: James Prout
James has over 18 years of experience in architecting and building solutions for start-ups and scale-ups in the UK and Australia.
Having worked with John previously, James brings the technical expertise required to scale mnAI, utilising modern technology stacks and serverless infrastructure to process over 9 billion data points on UK SMEs in near real-time.
Head of Marketing: Aaron Slater
Aaron runs and manages all marketing activities throughout the company and its associated brands, along with product design and development of UX and features.
Zoe Carter: Director of Client Services – Zoe is responsible for leading on sales, looking after clients that are signed up to the platform and ensuring they have the support they need, whether this is further training or answering queries.
