KX CEO Ashok Reddy On India Entry And Value Proposition
Tell us more about KX and its global operations.
KX is a global pioneer in time series and vector database technology, headquartered in New York and London. Last year we generated more than 100 million dollars in revenue and grew by 40%. We sit at the intersection of big and fast data, enabling customers to extract insights in real-time that are enriched with historical context.
Our technology was founded to serve financial services and capital markets customers, and 39 of the world’s 40 biggest investment banks and hedge funds are customers. Today, we have a global customer base covering the manufacturing, semiconductors, energy, healthcare, life sciences, telco, and other mobile industries.
What are KX’s primary offerings? Which verticals do they go to? How do they help customers?
Our products are built on kdb+, independently benchmarked as the world’s fastest time series database and analytics engine for vector, time series and real-time analytics. It provides data scientists and application developers with centralized, high-performance time series data access and analytics. Small, fast, and with a small footprint, kdb+ is proven to significantly reduce hardware and maintenance costs and deliver ultra-high performance and scalability. It is widely used in intelligent enterprises, from motorsport and manufacturing to healthcare and finance, to realize tangible data-driven outcomes.
Kdb Insights builds on the capabilities of kdb+ offering native integration with industry-standard programming languages such as Python and SQL. Fully cloud-enabled to operate on AWS, Azure, and GCP as well as on-prem private-cloud environments, kdb Insights allows customers to harness the technology that powers Wall Street directly within their cloud services.
Finally we have recently announced, KDB.AI, a powerful knowledge-based vector database and search engine. It allows developers to build scalable, reliable and real-time applications by providing advanced search, recommendation and personalization for AI applications, using real-time data.
Vector databases are the foundational building blocks for generative AI, enabling business users to perform contextual search – using natural language rather than just using keywords – and get answers with time-based and semantic relevancy.
We are not vertical-specific, but the type of data we process and how we apply rules such as machine learning, AI algorithms, compliance regulations etc—can be different depending on use case. We have a strong partner network of Global System Integrators where our technology is the engine for industry-specific solutions
How are KX’s services different from others?
Our value comes from price to performance. We can process data up to 100x faster and at around 1/10th of the cost of our competitors. It is not about performance for the sake of speed, but rather how can we help business users getter better answers to their questions, delivered at the speed of thought and as efficiently as possible. Our technology offers unparalleled speed, scalability, and infrastructure consumption for outstanding performances along with reduced hardware and operating costs.
Additionally, one of the significant barriers to AI research and development is the financial implication of accessing advanced tech infrastructure. Recognizing this, we've ensured that KDB.AI operates effectively without the need for expensive GPUs. Our intention is to democratize AI and make it accessible, ensuring that every aspiring developer, irrespective of their financial stature, can contribute to and shape the AI revolution.
Why India? How will KX be able to help Indian customers?
As the CEO of KX, I carry the dual pride of belonging to the tapestry of global AI leadership and Indian origins. I know firsthand the potential of the country to be a global leader in AI. We have the largest number of developers in AI engineering, we have many global systems integrated based in the country. With many of the world’s tech leaders coming from Indian origin, India is showing that it is not about serving and supplying others but leading. We want to be part of that growth.
But we recognise that to achieve this success, we must work in partnership with Indian enterprises, developers, and startups to provide the tools and training they need to take maximum advantage of an AI market forecast to be worth more than 4$bn in India by 2030. This is why we have announced ambitious plans to grow our Indian operation to 50 people in the short to medium term, expanding our team with sales, pre-sales, and dedicated onboarding roles to support our customers and partners. We are also exploring setting up an R&D hub to leverage the huge potential in AI skills that India offers.
How do you view the Indian economy vis-à-vis others that you are currently engaged with?
India is the 5th largest economy in the world and one of the fastest growing by GDP. It’s getting much easier to conduct business in the country thanks to ongoing investments in infrastructure and processes. However, as a knowledge-based economy, it will not be immune to some of the headwinds that generative AI will undoubtedly cause, especially around impact on the labour market. My hope, and indeed expectation, is that India can accelerate its adoption of, and leadership in AI, using it as a tailwind.
In the US, we have a lot of people of Indian origin working on AI. That is because we always focus on knowledge. How do we manage and extract knowledge to improve productivity and innovation? Our innate curiosity combined with high levels of technical expertise and a knack for problem solving is why I’m confident India will augment AI with human innovation and vision to deliver growth and success both in the short to medium term and for future generations,
What is the thinking behind your brand name KX?
I think of KX as extracting knowledge. K is for knowledge, and X is for extraction. In the new knowledge-based economy, everything is generally about how we extract knowledge in a way that can benefit the most amount of people. We exist to help everyone generate maximum value from their data, Knowledge Extraction with KX!
