Betterdata, a generative AI start-up, raises over-subscribed $1.65 million seed round to build the future of data and privacy engineering with programmable synthetic data

The new funding will be used to publicly launch Betterdata’s product, enhance its peer-reviewed programmable synthetic data technology stack including support for single-table, multi-table, and time-series datasets, and for hiring, especially sales and marketing positions for business development as the company scales. Betterdata currently operates in Singapore, but plans to expand across the Asia-Pacific region over the next one to two years.

Founded in 2021 by Chief Executive Officer Dr. Uzair Javaid and Chief Technologist Kevin Yee, Betterdata was launched to make data sharing faster and more secure in view of the increasing data protection regulations worldwide and user awareness on privacy. “Betterdata solves one of the biggest issues the AI industry is facing today: lack of high-quality data that also meets privacy requirements. Through its powerful platform, Betterdata generates synthetic data that mimics real-world data without compromising quality and privacy, helping businesses meet global compliance and privacy laws at scale,” said Khairu Rejal, Principal, Investible.

Betterdata differentiates from traditional data sharing methods that use data anonymization to destroy information and ensure privacy, with Generative AI and Privacy Engineering to generate synthetic data without destroying information and ensuring optimal data quality, risk, and fairness guarantees suitable for business use cases. “Data protection including user privacy, consent, copyrights, and compliance are on top of minds of CISOs today. Betterdata’s GenAI models can generate synthetic data at scale in a non-bias, highly accurate, and privacy-preserving way. We believe this is, and will be essential in many business verticals as the new wave of GenAI systems become mainstream,” said K. Yu, Founding Partner, Xcel Next.

Betterdata has recently entered into two research and development partnerships with leading academic institutes in Singapore and United States, and its product is being used by customers that include Tier 1 Firms, Fortune 200, Public Agencies, and AI Start-ups. “As data becomes increasingly important in all aspects of business and society, the need for reliable, accurate, and diverse data has become more pressing. We believe synthetic data will play a critical role in all areas where data has been used. Our collaboration with Betterdata has already yielded promising results. By leveraging synthetic data techniques, organizations can overcome the challenges of data scarcity, privacy concerns, and data quality issues, and unlock the full potential of their data assets.” said Dongxu Shao, Vice President, Innovation Centre, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.

Betterdata, an IMDA Spark company, is also exploring conducting Proof-of-Concepts with local Government agencies via IMDA’s Tech Acceleration Lab. “Congratulations to Uzair and Kevin on raising a new round. This comes hot on the heels of their recent first runner-up win in the Financial Innovation Category at the 東京金融賞 Tokyo Financial Award 2022. Since their inception in 2021, they have been pushing boundaries as a Generative AI company that solves Government agencies and enterprises’ long standing data challenges with their synthetic data generation platform. Their solution resolves data sensitivity issues, and provides a complete and clean dataset to enable new use cases for data sharing/collaboration, AI training, and system testing. We look forward to partner with Betterdata to unlock new innovative use cases and establish a foothold in the Asia-Pacific region quicker,” said Edwin Low, Director of Enterprise and Ecosystem Development, Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore. Betterdata is also part of IMDA’s Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) Sandbox initiative introduced in July 2022, for businesses to safely test and use their product.

Singapore University of Technology and Design’s Senior Director, Venture, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Ms. Celestine Khoo said, "We are pleased to support Betterdata through SUTD's Venture Innovation Fund, which invests in high-potential SUTD-affiliated startups to help extend their runway to commercial success. We are especially proud of Betterdata’s Co-Founder Kevin Yee, who is an SUTD alumnus, and their vision which aligns well with the university's mission to better the world by design."

For its innovative approach to synthetic data generation, Betterdata has earned numerous accolades. It was the first company in Asia-Pacific selected for the Franklin Templeton Singapore FinTech incubator program and has been featured by Gartner, Channel News Asia, D.Camp, and Tech in Asia. Additionally, it has received recognitions from Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Seagate, and TechCrunch as Top 20 Start-up Battlefield Companies.