Dataxet Closes Two Southeast Asian Big Data Deals On Its Mission To Be Asia’s Palantir

Singapore data intelligence startup Dataxet announced the closing of an acquisition in Malaysia and another in Indonesia and is quickly on its way to becoming the dominant data monitoring firm in Asia.

Dataxet, which has roots and founders from China’s technology space, acquired Sonar Platform in Indonesia along with News and Ads Monitoring Agency (NAMA) in Malaysia. This marks Dataxet’s latest efforts in building its network of data intelligence capabilities across Asia.

Sonar Platform, founded in 2015, boasts two state-of-the-art intelligence modules: Sonar Analytics and Sonar Influence. The former is an intelligence platform that combines social media, digital media, print media and marketplace data sources aimed at delivering mission critical insights and automated insight reports on demand. The latter provides end-to-end social media influencer management platform covering influencer discovery, campaign management and intelligent reporting aimed at optimising branded influencer campaigns and maximising ROI.

Dataxet’s total acquisition deal with Sonar also provides an exit for the Indonesian firm’s early investors MDI Ventures and Gunung Sewu.

Malaysia-based News and Ads Monitoring Agency (NAMA) was founded in 2006 and has grown to be the largest independent media monitoring company in Malaysia. It provides a full range of traditional media monitoring service with comprehensive coverage across print, broadcast and radio.

Dataxet was founded in late 2019 by Danny Levinson, David Liu, and Jason Lee. Levinson is American and has built and grown media monitoring SaaS businesses in mainland China for the past twenty years. He has successfully sold separate China technology businesses to Nasdaq-listed American firm Vocus and also to ASX-listed Australia-based Isentia. Levinson also sits on the board at China Money Network. Liu is Singaporean and most recently was chief executive for Isentia’s Asia business, and fellow Singaporean Lee was responsible for Isentia’s business across Southeast Asia. The founders have raised private capital to help fund their acquisitions and business growth.

Last month, Dataxet also announced a joint venture in Singapore with Australia-based Truescope.

Financial terms of the two private transactions were not revealed.