ExMetrix – a data-driven start-up

We present you the story of a company that not only impresses with its achievements but also shatters a few clichés that automatically pop up whenever we think “startup”. As it turns out, you can launch your own startup while already being an experienced entrepreneur. And you don’t have to deal with trendy wireless technologies at all to get noticed.

In neural networks

The beginnings of the startup start where most other companies would probably get looped for good – in neural networks. The future founders of ExMetrix, Ryszard and Zbigniew Łukoś, notice the possibilities that these types of structures offer in terms of financial modeling and analysis. They turn their interest into fascination, and that, in turn, into knowledge. They write more and more expert articles for increasingly serious journals. Their texts can soon be read in “Rzeczpospolita”, the stock market newspaper “Parkiet”, or “Dziennik Gazeta Prawna”. In total, about a hundred articles devoted to the application of forecasting based on neural networks in various areas of our lives come from the keyboards of Ryszard and Zbigniew.

Watchful of the changes happening around them, the Łukoś brothers begin to take an interest in artificial intelligence, increasingly advanced analytical technologies, and hardware growing in computing power. All of this allows them to improve data optimization management. Ryszard and Zbigniew noticed that despite the growing presence of the web in our lives and the increasing availability of valuable data, it was not being used effectively. In their opinion, such data was often collected primarily because it could be collected – and not because anyone had an idea of how to use it, or knew how to do it.

The most spectacular proof of the importance of neural networks utilizing data and artificial intelligence is the triumph of a robot over a human in the Asian game of Go, which is characterized by a significantly higher degree of complexity than the chess we know well.

In the opinion of many, this proves one thing: humans have practically no chance when competing against AI.

ExMetrix enters the game

Equipped with such knowledge, skills, and partners in the form of Konrad Pawlus and Grzegorz Błażewicz, Ryszard and Zbigniew found ExMetrix in 2016. All the pieces of the puzzle were in the right place: the Łukoś brothers provided the know-how in the form of proprietary, innovative mechanisms, while Grzegorz Błażewicz and Konrad Pawlus brought business knowledge and funding.

The quartet sets a goal to launch an analytical platform that will deliver valuable data and forecasts in the fields of economics, markets, demographics, and social processes. The gentlemen decided that their solution would support managers, financial directors, and analytics specialists in their decision-making processes.

What constitutes the value of ExMetrix the most is the use of just a single structure to connect databases and tools for their analysis. In this way, as Zbigniew Łukoś emphasizes, analytical work takes much less time and generates significantly fewer errors at the data preparation stage. This solution is the result of many years of experience of the startup’s founders, who always work on the created mechanisms personally.

Databases in motion

The next two years are a time when analytical tools and databases are created at ExMetrix. The starting point is artificial intelligence and big data technologies, and the destination is the creation of databases that cover the widest possible spectrum of topics. The first datasets, counting about one million time series, relate primarily to macroeconomics. Along with adding subsequent data sources, the number of streams grows – after twelve months, the platform can already analyze 20 million data streams from areas such as the economy, social processes, meteorology, health, and air pollution, among others. Today, ExMetrix analysts prepare their forecasts using – mind you! – almost 100 million time series. In doing so, they use tools they created themselves for efficient, fast, and multi-faceted analysis. Along with the new tools, successive analytical methods as well as mathematical modeling functions appear.

Platform launch

In 2019, the platform made by ExMetrix is ready to launch. The startup begins the first implementations of its proprietary solution. At the same time, it applies to KPT ScaleUP, the Industry 4.0 accelerator. The giant Grupa Azoty sees the potential in cooperating with the startup. It is alongside this company that the ExMetrix team refines its solutions for half a year. It also expands its offer by including ready-made models that forecast key factors affecting a business run by a specific enterprise. As a result, the ExMetrix team develops ready-made packages of models that forecast the prices of raw materials, energy, CO2, or energy resources.

The effect of the acceleration with KPT ScaleUP is also the idea for interactive online analytical reports. The forecasts or analyses contained within them would be continuously updated as fresh information, data readings, or stock quotes appear.

Fortunately for ExMetrix, COVID-19 does not halt the startup’s development. Quite the contrary – the reputable company is invited by the National Development Council and the Chief Sanitary Inspectorate to cooperate on modeling the development of the coronavirus pandemic in Poland.

If you want to find out more about the ExMetrix startup, visit the company’s official website or its social media.