The Daisy Story.
Daisy is AI done right.
We deliver AI-powered solutions for retailers and insurance companies that drive dramatically better business results.
Daisy uses reinforcement learning, a branch of AI, and its patent-pending Theory of Retail™ and Theory of Risk™ to be truly unique in the marketplace and on the cutting edge of the category management and risk management revolution.
Daisy’s technology, developed by a highly-skilled team of 60+ computational scientists, mathematicians and business domain experts analyzes 100% of an organization’s transactions, executing billions of simulations daily to deliver optimized merchandise planning and risk management decisions for our clients.
Linear regression, the forefather of deep learning and AI, was invented more than 200 years ago. So, why isn’t AI delivering better business results?
Our AI-powered solutions use reinforcement learning to deliver exceptional financial results: higher profits and sales and outstanding ROI.
AI is intelligent autonomous systems, not algorithms. Autonomy is stable, trustworthy and demonstratable business performances from your most important processes that deliver an invisible competitive edge.
Daisy delivers decisions that drive higher profits every year. We analyze 100% of your transactions to deliver business recommendations while automating processes beyond human capability.
Simply Put, Daisy is AI Done Right.
Better Financial Results
Our retail clients have historically seen top-line sales increase by
Reduce Fraudulent Payments
Insurance companies can avoid tens of millions of dollars in claims payments and assess risk more accurately with technology that makes investigations more efficient and successful.
Reinforcement Learning
Based on years of R&D and work with top brands, our technology is unique; it continuously learns and adjusts its decision-making policies without human intervention. We call it “autonomous machine intelligence”: computers do the time-consuming heavy lifting.
We Handle The Hard Work
Daisy handles repetitive, relentless and complex work, allowing your employees to use their experience and expertise to do what they do best…make strategic and creative decisions to serve your customers. They do what machines can’t!
Meet the Team
In today’s data-driven world, it is beyond human capacity to measure and optimize decision-making. Yet, the road to the humanly impossible is still driven by people – people like the team at Daisy. While we love our math and science, we pride ourselves on being fun and easy people to work with. We love our clients. For our team, no business challenge is too big when there’s a mountain of data to scale.
GARY SAARENVIRTA, M.A.Sc
Founder & CEO
Gary is Daisy’s Founder and CEO, and a preeminent authority on artificial intelligence and its ability to transform how businesses grow. He is also a member of Daisy’s board.
JEFF BERRY
VP, Operations
A seasoned executive-level professional, Jeff oversees Daisy’s production operations team, customer onboarding, product management, and infrastructure.
SHELINA KARA
VP, Client Management
Shelina is responsible for client steady state delivery post onboarding, client satisfaction, ad hoc analytics, and supporting client renewals and client upsell.
Jay Sweeney
VP, Sales and Marketing
Jay is Daisy’s Vice President of Sales. He’s an enterprise sales and marketing technologist who fosters relationships built on delivering value to Daisy’s customer roster, through the execution of Daisy’s sales strategy.
Chuck Williams
Director, Technology Infrastructure & CISO
Chuck is responsible for Daisy’s technology infrastructure supporting its industry leading AI & Machine Intelligence platform and also serves as CISO responsible for the company’s information and data security strategy.
NATASHA COTZ
Director, Talent & Culture
An HR strategist and recruitment expert, Natasha oversees all recruiting and new hire activities, human resources, performance management and employee training.
Andrea Long
Director, Operations
Andrea oversees Operations at Daisy and is responsible for the production operations team, project management and web development.
CHRIS ANDREW
Global Head of Insurance
A seasoned global insurance claims and counter fraud professional, Chris oversees Daisy’s global insurance practice responsible for driving new business and providing executive, leadership and subject matter expertise insights for the benefit of our customers.
GARY LOWEN
Enterprise Retail Sales
Gary brings twenty years of CPG and grocery leadership to Daisy. He headed sales teams at JDA/Blue Yonder, NCR Supply Chain and worldwide beverage alcohol leader Diageo. Gary’s focus at Daisy is driving on-going value to our enterprise prospects and clients.
Advisors
BRYAN PEARSON
Bryan Pearson is the former CEO of LoyaltyOne Co. and currently serves as a Corporate Director and strategic advisor to a number of for profit and charitable organizations.
ANDY ELLIS
Andy Ellis is a retailer with over thirty five years of experience in the food and non-food sectors. Andy is the former Executive Vice President of Walmart Canada and Supply Chain Director of UK based retailer ASDA.
TOM WELLS
Tom Wells has about 20 years of experience in the IT industry as a Finance and Operations executive and leader. He has held executive and leadership positions in Fortune 500 companies as well as large privately held organizations.
JOHAN LANDMARK
Johan Landmark is a senior executive with extensive experience in market research, brand building, innovation and strategic planning at international and national levels.
Board of Directors
JOHN MADIGAN
JSM Capital Inc.
John has 30 years of experience as a senior leader, innovator and investor in early stage tech companies. After a career with Northern Telecom/Nortel Networks, John co-founded several tech startups.
GARY SAARENVIRTA
Daisy Intelligence
Gary is Daisy’s Founder & CEO, leading the company as it builds an AI-powered platform that helps retailers and insurance companies around the world drive dramatically improved financial results.
PETER MISEK
Framework Venture Partners
Peter Misek is Co-Founder & Partner with Framework Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that combines a unique approach to data-driven investment with a collaborative engagement model.
EDUARDO PIEDADE
Sonae IM
Eduardo Piedade is Sonae IM’s CEO, a European-based global active investor, part of Sonae Group, which specializes in retail, telco technologies, and cybersecurity.
What’s in a name?
A lot of thinking.
In 2003, Gary Saarenvirta, launched makeplain Corp., best described as “a data analytics company.” Fast-forward to 2016, when makeplain rebranded as Daisy Intelligence. This was an acknowledgment that even after more than a decade of success, we had evolved alongside a rapidly changing data analytics landscape and we are now reaching new audiences.
Our inspiration for Daisy Intelligence came from several sources:
- We love using complex math to solve real-world problems, so, naturally, we’re big fans of Fibonacci, who introduced what is widely considered to be math’s perfected sequence: the Fibonacci Sequence. This sequence can be found throughout nature such as in the number of petals and the number of spirals in the florets of a daisy flower.
- In 1961, the IBM 7094 was programmed to sing “Daisy Bell”, the first song sung by a computer. “Daisy” was sung by HAL in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. We especially like the first line of the song: “Daisy, Daisy give me your answer true” because it reflects what Daisy Intelligence strives to deliver to its clients: the facts.
- The name Daisy contains “AI” which represents our company’s artificial intelligence foundation.
It’s safe to say, there’s a lot of thinking behind our name.
COMPANY HIGHLIGHTS
- Recognized as a “Cool Vendor in AI for Retail” by Gartner Inc.
- Named “Best Startup” at The AIconics awards.
- Won $5-million funding prize at ElevateR Pitch: AI Edition.
- Named to Toronto 50 list of GTA startups to watch.
LEARN MORE ABOUT AI TODAY –
WHAT IT IS, WHAT ISN’T, AND WHY NOW.
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