Meet CODE_n finalist Aentropico

Sebastián Pérez Saaibi is the CEO of Aentropico

Aentropico is a Latin American Predictive Analytics startup, based in Bogotá, Santiago and Rio de Janeiro. It helps medium and large businesses by transforming common data sources into powerful predictive insights that improve decision-making. The startup is one of the Top 50 finalists of CODE_n and will be at the CeBIT 2014 to present its Big Data solutions. 

In today’s interview, Sebastián Pérez Saaibi, CEO and Co-Founder of Aentropico, tells us how their DataApps can increase sales, cut costs and enhance the productivity of retailer companies. He also talks about their expectations of being part of CODE_n.

Aentropico is present in various Latin America cities. Does it benefit the startup in a different way?

Being in several countries is a calculated risk that we took as an opportunity to have the best of both worlds: In MassChallenge (Boston, MA) we were able to strengthen our ties to the MIT MediaLab and Harvard research groups as well as test our product with the powerful MC mentor network. On the other hand, at 21212/StartupBrasil we leveraged their strong commercial, talent, and mentor networks in Brazil to be able to have a soft landing in the country. Knowing the Chilean and Colombian ecosystems as a part of StartupChile and operating in these countries gives us a strong Pan-American expertise and connections. These ingredients have contributed to a more mature startup, ready for the challenge of becoming Latin America’s prime Predictive Analytics company.

Could you briefly explain how Aentropico helps improve retailer’s decision-making? Can you give us a practical case?

Aentropico empowers managers of medium-sized businesses with Predictive Analytics so that they can make informed decisions on customer segmentation, product recommendations, and inventory management. Managers get insight for their decisions by using our DataApps, which are ready to use predictive models that solve a particular business problem using an available data source. We built Aentropico as a way to bridge the gap between Data Science and businesses in the real world.

Due to high costs, nowadays only very large companies have access to analytics solutions. Through our cost-effective and easy to use DataApps, we offer alternatives to target medium and small businesses. One particular dataApp helps medium retailers decide on the optimal mix of their stores. This tool takes their P.O.S (point of sales) data as input and delivers a subset of products that will have better probability of successful sales in the upcoming weeks. The retail manager connects his common data source and gets a crisp report that answers his specific question.

How is the startup scenario in Latin America? Did Aentropico receive government incentives?

We have been around the region, participating in incubators and accelerators across Latin America and the US (StartupChile, Innpulsa, MassChallenge, StartupBrasil, all of which offered government non-equity grants). We specially feel that the entrepreneurship (empreendedorismo) vibe in Brazil is quite thriving and unique. As is also the case for other Latin American countries, there is still relatively few ‘success-stories’. Having said that, the ecosystem feels more articulate than in other countries in Latin America, making it a unique place to grow our business.

What role do startups play in the big data landscape?

We strongly believe that startups can dramatically change how a technology is used and adopted by populations at large. In this sense, practically every startup in the next 5 years will be leveraging ‘Big Data’ technologies to drive profit for their businesses. It is up to us to enable these companies with novel technologies and more importantly, radical paradigms on how to take advantage of advanced data processing and analytics. That is precisely why Aentropico exists: We are bridging that gap and bringing predictive analytics to the masses.

What do you expect from Aentropico participation at CODE_n and CeBIT?

Being one of CODE_n finalists is a BIG deal for us. We realize the effort the CODE_n and CeBIT team have put in selecting world-leading startups producing cutting-edge technologies on the big data frontier; we are glad to be a part of this select group. We also see CeBIT as a fantastic opportunity window to launch and expose our Retail DataApps to customers, investors, and partners in Europe and Worldwide.