Yellowwoods Capital Holdings has acquired a significant shareholding in DataProphet, a Cape Town-based machine learning startup.

DataProphet provides consulting and product development services to a myriad of industries from finance to legal.

The firm is comprised of a diverse team of skilled computer scientists, statisticians, actuaries, engineers and mathematicians that are poised to deliver something which has previously been unavailable to entities smaller than a nation-state – actionable artificial intelligence solutions.

DataProphet has a number of products designed to be introduced with minimal operational burden.

The company adapts each product to individual business needs, accommodating various datasets and database management systems, as well as tuning the optimization of the products according to preference.

This investment by Yellowwoods Capital Holdings will be used to invest in more resources and machines and to expand DataProphet’s international offering.

“This investment is a testament to the team we have built, to our capabilities and ultimately to the field as a whole – all of which is very exciting,” said DataProphet’s Commercial Director and Co-Founder, Daniel Schwartzkopff.

“It has given us the freedom to do what we are good at while also being able to invest in additional resources and machines if and when necessary,” he added.

As part of the deal, DataProphet will be acting as the advanced analytics partner for Yellowwoods Capital Holdings.

According to Schwartzkopff, machine learning startups like DataProphet are hindered in their work unless they have data-owning partners to implement their solutions.

Schwartzkopff added that South African businesses have been slower to include machine learning solutions in their budgets.

“South African businesses haven’t been as quick to jump on board as those in the US, mainly due to a shortage of artificial intelligence skills in the country. Recently, however, a number of large local and international corporates in South Africa have begun to allow for these solutions in their budgets,” he said.

Yellowwoods Capital Holdings has a strong record in the South African business space.

Previous investments include Hollard Insurance, Clientele and Nando’s, among others.