Metaforms raises USD $9m to revolutionise market research
The funding round was led by Peak XV Partners, formerly known as Sequoia India, and included participation from Nexus Venture Partners and Together Fund. With this investment, Metaforms will expand its team, enhance its AI agents, and broaden its platform to include report generation and voice-based research capabilities. The company's integrations already extend to widely used research tools such as Decipher, SPSS, and Confirmit.
Addressing industry bottlenecks
The global market research industry, estimated to be worth USD $130 billion, is experiencing rapid growth. However, agencies face increasing challenges from outdated operational systems, leading to capacity issues and compressed margins. Metaforms aims to address these challenges, enabling agencies to meet client demand without overburdening their staff or turning away work. "We're thrilled to partner with Akshat and Arjun as they reimagine what a market research agency could look like in an AI-first world. Metaforms is scaling rapidly, by enabling some of the largest research agencies globally to automate workflows such as survey programming and data processing through their suite of AI agents." Shailendra Singh, MD, Peak XV
Research agencies traditionally spend significant time on manual tasks such as converting survey questionnaires into code, coordinating with multiple panel providers via email, and running complex validation scripts. Metaforms' AI agents automate these processes, fitting within agencies' existing workflows and improving efficiency without replacing human expertise.
The platform's functions include converting questionnaires into survey code, identifying problematic data before it impacts projects, coordinating with panel vendors, and managing quotas across multi-country studies. For many agencies, these capabilities represent the difference between being able to scale up or having to refuse additional business.
Industry traction
Since launching commercially six months ago, Metaforms has secured contracts with four of the world's top twenty research agencies, including Strat7. The platform currently processes over 1,000 surveys per month and counts several Fortune 500 companies among its clients. Metaforms reports a 100% expansion rate among clients who started with a single AI agent and have since deployed additional AI functionalities. "Metaforms has been incredibly successful thanks to their uniquely thoughtful approach to modernising research operations - embedding seamlessly into the workflows, tools, and platforms that researchers and agencies already use. I'm excited to continue supporting the team as they build on that momentum with this Series A." Jonathan Tice, GTM Consultant [Prev: Chief Customer Officer, Forsta]
Akshat Tyagi and Arjun S founded Metaforms in 2022, driven by their own difficulties accessing professional market research as early-stage founders. They identified that agencies were limited not by a lack of demand, but by their operational bandwidth, and set out to build a platform to increase efficiency. "Our goal is simple: help great research teams spend less time firefighting and more time doing the work that actually matters," said Akshat Tyagi, co-founder and CEO of Metaforms. "When you automate the grunt work, you make high-quality research more accessible to more companies."
According to Metaforms, its AI platform makes high-quality, professional-grade market research more accessible both to large global companies and early-stage startups. By automating high-volume, repetitive tasks, the platform is enabling agencies to serve clients they may previously have had to turn away, improving their ability to scale and manage costs effectively. "Metaforms is a breakout example of the India-to-global play in AI," said Manav Garg, Co-founder and managing partner at Together Fund. "They're not just automating tasks - they're rebuilding research infrastructure for the modern era. With their early traction across global agencies, Akshat and Arjun are showing what's possible when deep customer empathy meets technical ambition."
Agencies such as Strat7 have reported tangible benefits from deploying Metaforms' platform. Tabita Razaila, Head of Operations at Strat7, said, "Our partnership has delivered strong ROI, thanks to Metaforms' exceptional service and prompt support." "They're solving a major pain point for the entire industry. That focus and ability to deeply understand customer needs and address that using genetic AI is the hallmark of Metaforms team. We are thrilled to back Akshat and Arjun in their journey of building a remarkable company!", said Jishnu Bhattacharjee and Arjun Gandhi, Nexus Venture Partners.
Future plans
Looking ahead, Metaforms has plans to triple the size of its team and further expand its agent capabilities, including the development of automated reporting, voice research, and expanded language support. The company's long-term goal is to process over 100,000 surveys per year, further increasing access to comprehensive market research across industries and company sizes. "When research agencies grow, better business decisions get made," added Akshat Tyagi. "We're not here to replace the humans in the loop. We're here to give them leverage."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
1News
8 minutes ago
- 1News
Rocky road predicted due to Trump's tariff expansions, not least for US
The global rollercoaster ride of US trade tariffs has entered a new phase with sobering ramifications for many countries including the US. Auckland-based Economics professor Niven Winchester explains. The global rollercoaster ride of United States trade tariffs has now entered its latest phase. President Donald Trump's April 2 'Liberation Day' announcement placed reciprocal tariffs on all countries. A week later, amid financial market turmoil, these tariffs were paused and replaced by a 10% baseline tariff on most goods. On July 31, however, the Trump Administration reinstated and expanded the reciprocal tariff policy. Most of these updated tariffs are scheduled to take effect on August 7. To evaluate the impact of these latest tariffs, we also need to take into account recently negotiated free trade agreements (such as the US-European Union deal), the 50% tariffs imposed on steel and aluminium imports, and tariff exemptions for imports of smartphones, computers and other electronics. ADVERTISEMENT For selected countries, the reciprocal tariffs announced on April 2 and the revised values of these tariffs are shown in the table below. The revised additional tariffs are highest for Brazil (50%) and Switzerland (39%), and lowest for Australia and the United Kingdom (10%). Table: The Conversation; Source: Niven Winchester (Source: Supplied) For most countries, the revised tariffs are lower than the original ones. But Brazil, Switzerland and New Zealand are subject to higher tariffs than those announced in April. In addition to the tariffs displayed above, Canadian and Mexican goods not registered as compliant with the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement are subject to tariffs of 35% and 25% respectively. Economic impacts The economic impacts of the revised tariffs are examined using a global model of goods and services markets, covering production, trade and consumption. A similar model was used to assess the impacts of the original reciprocal tariffs and the outcome of a US-China trade war. ADVERTISEMENT GDP impacts of the tariffs are displayed in the table below. The impacts of the additional tariffs are evaluated relative to trade measures in place before Trump's second term. Retaliatory tariffs are not considered in the analysis. Table: The Conversation; Source: Niven Winchester (Source: Supplied) An economic own goal The tariffs reduce US annual GDP by 0.36%. This equates to US$108.2 billion or $861 per household per year (all amounts in this article are in US dollars). The change in US GDP is an aggregate of impacts involving several factors. The tariffs will compel foreign producers to lower their prices. But these price decreases only partially offset the cost of the tariffs, so US consumers pay higher prices. Businesses also pay more for parts and materials. Ultimately, these higher prices hurt the US economy. ADVERTISEMENT The tariffs decrease US merchandise imports by $486.7 billion. But as they drive up the cost of US supply chains and shift more workers and resources into industries that compete with imports, away from other parts of the economy, they also decrease US merchandise exports by $451.1 billion. The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including the West Auckland builder sentenced over massive meth haul, fire on a commuter train, and how Bluey could teach kids about resilience. (Source: 1News) Global impacts For most other countries, the additional tariffs reduce GDP. Switzerland's GDP decreases by 0.47%, equivalent to $1,215 per household per year. Proportional GDP decreases are also relatively large for Thailand (0.44%) and Taiwan (0.38%). In dollar terms, GDP decreases are relatively large for China ($66.9 billion) and the European Union ($26.6 billion). Australia and the United Kingdom gain from the tariffs ($0.1 billion and $0.07 billion respectively), primarily due to the relatively low tariffs levied on these countries. Despite facing relatively low additional tariffs, New Zealand's GDP decreases by 0.15% ($204 per household) as many of its agricultural exports compete with Australian commodities, which are subject to an even lower tariff. ADVERTISEMENT Although the revised reciprocal tariffs are, on average, lower than those announced on April 2, they are still a substantial shock to the global trading system. Financial markets have been buoyant since Trump paused reciprocal tariffs on April 9, partly on the hope that the tariffs would never be imposed. US tariffs of at least 10% to 15% now appear to be the new norm. As US warehouses run down inventories and stockpiles, there could be a rocky road ahead. Niven Winchester is a Professor of Economics, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand. This article was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons Licence.
Otago Daily Times
5 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Cryptopia customer tried to bribe court registrar for information
A man claiming to be an affected party in the collapse of a multimillion-dollar cryptocurrency company has tried to bribe a court registrar to release information related to the case for $2 million in Bitcoin. New Zealand-based company Cryptopia was allegedly hacked in January 2019, leading to the loss of about $30m in cryptocurrency held by it in an exchange. The business tried to reopen, but customer trust was low following the hack, and it went into liquidation. Liquidators are still trying to disentangle its finances and return funds to customers where possible. In December last year, public accountancy firm Grant Thornton announced that $400 million in cryptocurrency had been returned to about 10,000 customers. Then, in June this year, the firm announced a further 2624 customers had received $50m in Bitcoin and Dogecoin. It was also preparing to launch distributions to affected customers to qualifying account holders in Cardano, Tether, Tron and Litecoin currencies. Cryptopia, founded by Adam Clark and Rob Dawson, owed IRD more than $19m and a further $22m to unsecured creditors. The accountancy firm has said it was unclear whether there would be money remaining to pay those creditors. 'I need assets returned to me' Now, a man claiming to be a creditor has applied to the High Court at Christchurch to access court documents related to the liquidation of Cryptopia. The case has been before the court since liquidators applied for a court order to sell some of Cryptopia's bitcoin to pay their own fees in liquidating the company. The documents the man requested were related to an affidavit filed in 2019 by one of the liquidators, David Ruscoe, in which he annexed two spreadsheets containing databases of commercially sensitive and confidential information relating to 960,000 of Cryptopia's account holders and their cryptocurrency holdings. The court had received the information on a USB drive. According to court documents, a court registrar inadvertently sent it to Thomas Cattermole, who runs an unincorporated enterprise called 'Cryptopia Rescue' that purports to offer help to former customers of Cryptopia. Grant Thornton then took Cattermole to court, claiming he was in contempt of court for passing the information held on that USB to third parties, and secured an injunction to stop him sharing the information further. 'Abuse of process' Any member of the public can request documents held by a court, but it's at the judge's discretion to release them. In this case, the man, emailed the Christchurch High Court registry requesting access to the confidential spreadsheet. 'I would like to seek out answers as to why the TRUSTEE / Liquidator are hiding the blockchain wallet addresses for my assets. They have breached trust law, and I would like to seek out the return of my funds. I need assets returned to me,' his email read. Grant Thornton opposed those documents being released, noting that a person by the same name was currently going through the account registration process to receive funds released by liquidators. In addition to filing a request for access to Ruscoe's affidavit, the man emailed a court registrar and said he had faced 'significant barriers' in accessing the information he was seeking. A registrar responded, identifying themselves as the case manager, and the man then replied with allegations about the conduct of the liquidators. He told the registrar that if they saw 'anything dodgy happen', to email a private email address, which he provided. 'They can't pay you, but I think they will donate 10 bitcoin to any wallet of the whistleblower's choice,' his email said. Ten Bitcoin is roughly equivalent to $2 million at the time the ruling was issued. The man also accused High Court judge, Justice Andru Isac, of holding a private teleconference with the liquidators. In a recent ruling by Justice Isac declining the man's application for the requested documents, he pointed out that the man had attempted to arrange an unlawful Bitcoin payment to a member of the court registry in exchange for information, before providing an email address to facilitate a private response. 'Given the applicant's improper attempt to solicit information from a Court officer I am satisfied the request for access to Court documents is an abuse of process,' Justice Isac said. 'The party lodging the request has not provided proof of their identity. They claim to be residing overseas. 'And as the premise of the application is the applicant's desire to be repatriated with an account held by Cryptopia, given the liquidators have an identification process available to the applicant, it is unclear why he should need access to Court documents to establish his interest in the relevant account. 'That information should already be available to him.'
NZ Herald
6 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Tycoon who brought F1 to Singapore pleads guilty in corruption case
Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech. Already a subscriber? Sign in here Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen. Tycoon who brought F1 to Singapore pleads guilty in corruption case Malaysian hotel tycoon Ong Beng Seng leaves the State Court in Singapore. Photo / AFP A Malaysian hotel tycoon who helped bring Formula One to Singapore has pleaded guilty to abetting the obstruction of justice, in a rare corruption case in the city-state that saw a former transport minister jailed last year. Singapore-based billionaire Ong Beng Seng, 79, was charged in October last year with helping former transport minister S Iswaran cover up evidence in a graft investigation. He was also accused of showering Iswaran with lavish gifts, including tickets to the 2017 Singapore Formula One Grand Prix, flights on a private jet, business class travel and a luxury hotel stay. Ong entered his guilty plea from a glass-encased dock at a district court in downtown Singapore. Prosecutors sought a two-month jail term after Ong agreed to plead guilty. He will be sentenced on August 15.
