NewtonX, an AI-powered expert search engine, today announces that the company has raised $3 million in seed funding from XFund, Third Prime Capital, and select investors to disrupt the multi-billion dollar C-suite advisory market through data science and automation.
Leveraging a proprietary search methodology developed by a former Google engineer, coupled with a dynamic matching algorithm, NewtonX delivers one-on-one expert consultations to executives around the world. The insights range from determining the market size of quantum computing in 2025 for IBM, to best practices in crisis management for the oil industry, to the most likely color palettes at the Paris fashion show for a global luxury brand. NewtonX’s main asset is its wide range of thought leaders, experts, former CEOs, and keynote speakers who participate in these exclusive one-on-one consultations with other senior executives.
In less than a year, NewtonX has grown from three employees and one client, to 25 employees, seven digit revenue, and more than 20 clients, including top management consulting firms, large technology companies, and leading financial institutions. NewtonX was founded by CEO Germain Chastel and COO Sascha Eder both alumni of McKinsey & Company, along with CTO Anuja Ketan, previously CTO at Zillion and an executive at Northrop Grumman.
“Our AI connects governments, corporations, financial services firms, and even startups with answers to million dollar questions, for a fraction of the price,” declared NewtonX CEO Germain Chastel. “At McKinsey & Company, I realized how difficult it was for executives and government officials to access specific, non-public knowledge. That’s when I started working with Anuja Ketan to develop a solution.”
NewtonX launched in 2017, and has since grown to 25 employees across two international offices. The business has undergone explosive growth in the past six months, tripling the number of employees and multiplying revenue by 10. NewtonX is proud to have a highly diverse team, with 50% women, and more importantly, 50% women in leadership positions.
How it works
NewtonX has developed a proprietary knowledge graph that precisely codifies the needs of its clients across any industry, no matter how niche. This graph enables an automated search which identifies in real-time and without human input the most relevant experts to answer specific questions. This custom process, coupled with robust automation enables NewtonX to deliver experts in real-time in topics as esoteric as the frangible bullets market for law enforcement agencies, or the separation of Vanadium from Titanium in titano-magnetite ore in Peru.
“I used to be on the client side of expert networks when I worked at McKinsey, and saw a missed opportunity for automation,” explained NewtonX COO Sascha Eder. “The industry is a perfect use case for AI today.”
NewtonX has two primary product offerings: one-on-one expert consultations and large-scale expert surveys. The platform provides access to premium experts including current and former CEOs, board advisors, and academics from ivy league institutions including MIT and Harvard. NewtonX leverages proprietary speech-to-text software in addition to its knowledge graph, enabling NewtonX to deliver full-scale surveys and comprehensive expert insights at twice the speed and half the cost of traditional B2B panels and survey providers.