Declara is a social learning and collaboration technology company based in Palo Alto, California.

Product

Declara's technology platform is called the Cognitive Graph. It analyses and observes how users interact with data—including searches, Tweets, posts, blogs, videos, likes, recommendations, messages, and web content—to create a personalized, cognitive learning map based on a user's data, history, and interests. Declara's customers include governments, companies, educational institutions, non-profits and research organizations that use its platform to connect everyone in a company or organization to collaborate, learn, and solve problems more effectively.

History

Declara was founded in 2012 by Ramona Pierson and Nelson Gonzalez. The inspiration for Declara, Pierson has said, came from her recovery from a 1984 car accident that tore apart her body and put her in a coma for 18 months. When Pierson awoke, she was blind and was forced to relearn how to walk, breathe, and even smile. She regained partial sight in her left eye after a successful corneal transplant operation. The process of having to relearn such basic skills for her highlighted the importance of being a lifelong learner, which ultimately led to her co-founding Declara. Nelson and Pierson started a company that has been described as building a software simulation of Pierson's mind. With the help of algorithms developed by Pierson and others, including engineers from

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

, Declara's system learns how people interact, what types of questions they're looking to answer, and who can provide the best answers. Declara secured $5 million in early investments, which included the backing of

Peter Thiel Peter Andreas Thiel (; born 11 October 1967) is a German-American billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist. A co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, he was the first outside investor in Fac ...

, the co-founder of

PayPal PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...

. In April 2014, Declara raised $16 million in

Series A A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

funding, led by GSV Capital, with participation from Data Collective,

Founders Fund Founders Fund is a San Francisco-based venture capital firm. Formed in 2005, Founders Fund had more than $11 billion in aggregate capital under management as of 2022. The firm invests across all stages and sectors, including aerospace, artificia ...

, and Catamount Ventures. In June 2014, the company secured $9 million in funding from Linden Venture Fund and EDBI, bringing its total Series A funding to $25 million. At the same time, Declara announced its expansion into

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Customers

Education Services Australia (ESA), a national, not-for-profit company owned by Australian education ministers, began using the Declara platform in 2013. In April 2014, Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE) — the largest teachers' union in

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

— selected Declara as the technology platform for professional development of its 1.6 million teachers and administrators. Declara's customers include

Genentech Genentech, Inc., is an American biotechnology corporation headquartered in South San Francisco, California. It became an independent subsidiary of Roche in 2009. Genentech Research and Early Development operates as an independent center within R ...

, The

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in the United States and Bécalos, an organization of Mexico's Televisa Foundation.

Awards

Pierson was named to the

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...

's Silicon Valley 100: The Coolest People in Tech Right Now in March 2014.

References

External links

* {{official website Companies based in Palo Alto, California Software companies based in the San Francisco Bay Area 2012 establishments in California Software companies of the United States