How startup BRDA revolutionises big data

The company’s founders have bridged the market gap in big data.

Data is everywhere and every company has identified its value in gaining insights on the markets. But for data startup BRDA, more revolutionary actions are needed to leverage data, so its founders have decided that one of their key focuses is delivering real, measurable and impactful business growth using big data.

“Data is everywhere, every company has it. But the problem is whether you can identify the value in your data and how to achieve monetisation of data. It requires heavy investments and is extremely difficult,” CEO and co-founder Andy Low told Singapore Business Review.

He recalled having worked in China for a decade and getting acquainted with fellow founders Ding Xiao Qiang and Dr. Li Ce. Low said they got to talking about big data and realised that they had the skills to overcome problems of data.

“We were pretty comfortable in our jobs, but we decided to take the leap to set up BRDA because of the huge market gap when it comes to big data and we see the huge opportunities present,” he said.

BRDA monetises data primarily through developing revenue-generating products so being a new company they needed data partners who would provide data sets in which to create data products.

Low explained that they do not charge their partners if their data set is suitable for them to work. Instead, they share revenue with them once the products are developed. They initially had a tough time convincing companies that BRDA is unique because common practice for data companies is to charge clients for data analytics.

"Fortunately we landed our first data set, which is the China Expressway Toll data, which is a huge data set with billions of past transactions and near 30 million daily transactions with multiple revenue-generating products developed. Once we have shown our ability to do what we preach, the doors are starting to open for us,” Low said.

According to Low, BRDA collaborates with data owners to help them properly monetise their data by developing innovative data products to gain access to new markets or simply creating new revenue streams that can be done through a revenue sharing model, making it a win-win situation for both parties.

The company currently has more than $1.8m (US$1.5m) in seed funding since their establishment in 2020. Low said that because the company has presence in China’s market, they are able to properly test their technology and build on their technology.

“We are combining the advancements of technologies in China with our Singapore’s tech. In fact, two of our founders were the founding members of the financial subsidiary of one of China’s biggest e-commerce players, and one of their notable achievements was the creation of their Buy Now Pay Later schemes with comprehensive credit assessment,” Low added.

BRDA is currently in the last stages of testing products with several banks and financial institutions in China and will be doing a soft launch soon. The startup is also working on developing anti-fraud and credit assessment products focusing on the Singapore market.

In the next five years, Low said the company aims to bridge the information gap in Asia by building a valuable data product platform from the company's growing library of data products and resources so businesses looking to expand regionally, or even internationally, can make use of the firm's data products to gain market access.

“Data holds the key to the doors to new markets, new customer types, but some companies have yet to understand its true value, especially in industries that are more traditional,” Low said.