Growth capital investor Beringea has stepped in as lead investor for an investment transaction closed by Big Data Partnership.

The business, which provides vendor-agnostic big data services such as consulting, training and support, has banked £1.25 million through the equity deal.

The two year-old business was founded by Mike Merritt-Holmes, Pinal Gandhi and Tim Seears and now hopes to grow out its team of engineers, data science and sales and marketing.

Merrit-Holmes, CEO of Big Data Partnership, comments, ‘The explosion of interest in big data and machine learning is transforming the workplace, as businesses increasingly seek new ways to capitalise on their fast-growing datasets.

‘We are overcoming the incumbent challenges by helping enterprises navigate the rapidly evolving technology landscape of modern data platforms such as NoSQL, Hadoop and search technologies.’

According to statistics gathered by Big Data Partnerships, the big data technology and services market is predicted to grow at a 27 per cent compound annual growth – with figures topping $32.4 billion in 2017.

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New investor Beringea, which has bases in London and Detroit, is installing chief investment officer Trevor Hope as a board member at Big Data Partnerships.

Hope, who is manager of the ProVen VCTs or Beringea, adds, ‘”Big data” is a widely used term; although most organisations appreciate its potential promise they still face adoption and deployment challenges.

‘Demand for big data skills continues to outstrip supply and Big Data Partnerships is one of the few companies addressing this gap and offering a legitimate way to push industry forward.’

Through its range of services, Big Data Partnerships is currently partnering with organisations including IBM, DataStax and Microsoft’s HDInsight.