Meet Richard Potter, CEO at Decision Intelligence Platform: Peak

Jointly founded in Manchester and Jaipur in 2015 by David Leitch, Atul Sharma and myself, Peak is a Decision Intelligence platform. This means we deliver the entire lifecycle of Decision Intelligence, providing businesses all over the world with AI-powered solutions to drive commercial outcomes.

Connecting data sets from across an organisation to provide predictive insight, the Peak platform directs fast and effective decision-making. It is used by leading brands including Nike, Pepsico, KFC, Sika and PrettyLittleThing. In August 2021, Peak announced a $75m Series C funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund II. The company has grown significantly over the last three years and now numbers 250 people globally. In 2021, it received a Best Companies 3-star accreditation, which recognises extraordinary levels of employee engagement and was ranked by The Sunday Times as one of the Best 100 Companies to Work For in 2020 and 2021.
 
 

 

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

 
We set up Peak in 2015 to revolutionise the industry. We came up with the concept in a pub in Manchester (UK), where ideas and creativity are often at their ‘peak’. Doodling on napkins we created the first iteration of what our platform could be.

We had worked as a close-knit team in other global companies in analytics and tech teams. Bringing together disparate, relevant sources of data and information from across a business struck us as the key to increasing revenue and profit.

We created Peak to help companies become AI-driven, and to make AI accessible within a business, by offering a pioneering platform that embeds AI across the value chain. Our original doodle now hangs in Peak HQ. It reminds us of how far we’ve come, and inspires us to continue to search for original perspectives, explore our innate curiosity and believe in our ability to reimagine the world.
 

How has the company evolved during the pandemic?

 
The pandemic has been a challenging period for everyone, and though like most we’ve had to adapt, it has also been full of opportunities. The industry is ever changing, with more and more businesses looking at new ways to boost sales and stand out from the crowd.

To thrive in our current environment, businesses are relying more than ever on the power of AI to turn huge volumes of complex data into actionable intelligence – helping them make the right calls and the right decisions. Decision Intelligence is thriving right now, and we’re at the very heart of it. We believe that, in the future every company will be powered by Decision Intelligence. Gartner has recognised DI as one of 12 top strategic trends for 2022 and believes that, by 2023, more than 30% of large businesses will be practicing it

This year, we’ve hired close to 200 people, had two funding rounds – including a $75m series C led by Softbank – and continue to work with major global brands. We’re on a great stride and look forward to the future that lies ahead.
 

What can we hope to see from Peak in the future?

 
We’ve got quite a few exciting prospects in 2022 including the openings of our first New York City and Mumbai Clubhouses. We’re especially proud and pleased to announce that, from January, the Peak platform will be available to businesses to build their own AI-powered Decision Intelligence solutions for the first time.

It’s a huge leap forward for the productionisation of AI within businesses. The Peak platform will provide one environment where technical teams can manage data, model, evaluate, orchestrate and deploy DI solutions. Crucially, it also includes an interface in which business users and teams can visualise, share and interact with outputs, allowing those with no coding skills to utilise AI and benefit from DI.

This creates huge performance gains from data projects, allowing for easy deployment of models on the platform and more efficient use of data science skills – – we’re very excited about 2022!