Betterdata, a Singapore-based startup that provides programmatic synthetic data to keep real data secure, has announced that it raised $1.55 million in seed funding in an oversubscribed round led by Investible. Other investors include Franklin Templeton, Xcel Next, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Bon Auxilium, Tenity, Plug and Play, and Entrepreneur First. The company, founded in 2021 by CEO Dr. Uzair Javaid and Chief Technologist Kevin Yee, aims to make data sharing faster and more secure as data protection regulations increase globally. It does this by using generative AI and privacy engineering to create and augment new datasets.
Betterdata differs from traditional data sharing methods that use data anonymization to destroy data, according to Yee. Instead, the company uses generative models such as deep learning models like generative adversarial models, transformers, and diffusion models to create and augment new datasets. These synthetic datasets have similar characteristics and structures to real-world data without revealing sensitive or private information about individuals. The goal is to create a fictional version of a real dataset that can be safely used for various purposes, including safeguarding confidential data, reducing bias, and improving machine learning models.
Programmatic synthetic data can help developers protect sensitive data, comply with data protection regulations like GDPR and HIPAA, increase data availability between teams, create more data to train, test, and validate machine learning models, and address data imbalance issues by creating more records for underrepresented groups or classes. Betterdata’s funding will be used to launch its product and improve its programmable synthetic data tech stack, including support for single-table, multi-table, and time-series datasets.
Betterdata also plans to hire more employees, including sales and marketing staff, and expand beyond Singapore to other parts of the Asia-Pacific region over the next one to two years. Investible Principal Khairu Rejal commented on the investment, saying, “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.”
