Applied Predictive Technologies

Applied Predictive Technologies (APT) was a software company that provided business analytics software, intended to help large, consumer-facing businesses "reduce the risk of any new initiative by systematically testing the idea with a subset of stores, customers, or employees."[3] APT was acquired by Mastercard in 2015[4] and no longer operates as a standalone business.

Applied Predictive Technologies
IndustrySoftware as a service
Founded1999[1]
Founder
HeadquartersArlington, Virginia, United States[1]
Number of employees
600
Websitewww.mastercardservices.com/en/solutions/test-learn

History

APT was founded in 1999 by business consulting executives Jim Manzi (Oliver Wyman), Anthony Bruce (McKinsey & Company), and Scott Setrakian (Oliver Wyman).[5] Manzi explained to The Washington Post that "a lot of the work I was doing as a consultant was very repetitive. I realized how much of it could be put into a software model.”[6] With venture capital from Devon Partners, it took Manzi and Bruce less than a year to develop and launch APT's software tool. In 2006, the firm was backed by Accel-KKR, a private equity firm.[7] In 2013, Goldman Sachs invested $100 million in APT.[8]

APT was acquired by Mastercard in 2015.[4]

Software

APT's (now Mastercard's) software takes a statistically rigorous test and learn approach to business analytics, in which proposed changes are tried out on a small scale and then analyzed before being implemented everywhere. APT's approach follows a larger business trend, evidence-based management, in which the scientific method is applied to business decision making. APT's software automates the cycle described by the Harvard Business Review:[9]

  • Create a hypothesis
  • Design a test to gather information about the hypothesis
  • Execute the test
  • Analyze the test to determine how successful it was and what factors explain performance differences
  • Plan the rollout based on the analysis of the test

In February 2011, APT was awarded a patent that protects its core analytic technology for designing an in-market test and on matching test stores to control stores.[10] APT has since lost its key patent when it was invalidated in 2020 by the US District Court.[11]

Litigation

APT filed a lawsuit against the company MarketDial in June 2018 alleging that MarketDial's co-founders stole trade secrets that they had access to while working as consultants when they founded MarketDial, and that the company infringed on a patent held by APT. The patent infringement claim was dismissed by a judge in November 2020, along with claims of civil conspiracy and fraud. In April 2022, the presiding judge denied MarketDial's request to dismiss the trade secrets claim. As of April 2022, the case was pending.[12][13]

See also

References
  1. "Applied Predictive Technologies, Inc.: Private Company Information". BusinessWeek. Archived from the original on December 27, 2008. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
  2. "APT Management". Archived from the original on 16 October 2009. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
  3. "Financial Times". Retrieved 7 December 2011.
  4. "MasterCard Announces Acquisition of Applied Predictive Technologies".
  5. Hayes, Heather B. (May 2006). "2006 Fantastic 50: Applied Predictive Technologies". Archived from the original on 27 June 2008. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
  6. McCarthy, Ellen. "Applied Predictive Technologies Makes Consulting Automatic." The Washington Post 20 August 2001. E5. Print.
  7. "Accel-KKR Portfolio". Archived from the original on 30 November 2009. Retrieved 18 September 2009.
  8. "What does Goldman Sachs' $100m investment in APT mean for big data analytics?". 27 June 2013.
  9. Davenport, Thomas H. (February 2009). "How to Design Smart Business Experiments". Harvard Business Review.
  10. "United States Patent No. 7,895,072". 22 February 2011. Retrieved 9 February 2012.
  11. "MEMORANDUM DECISION" (PDF). 25 November 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2020.
  12. Yasiejko, Christopher (June 29, 2018). "Mastercard Claims Ex-Contractor Stole Secrets, Infringes Patent". Bloomberg Law. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  13. Jackson, Jasmin (April 11, 2022). "Judge Trims MasterCard Unit's IP Suit Over Analytics Software". Law360. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
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