Charles River Data closes seed funding round led by Trevor Burgess

Charles River Data (CRD), a Boston-based data consultancy, has closed a seed funding round led by Trevor Burgess, a fintech entrepreneur and former strategy consultant.

Founded in 2021 by Michael Dezube, a former Google senior software engineer/data scientist, CRD helps enterprise clients augment data science capabilities and solve critical business problems. The firm offers customized data science solutions in personalized marketing, scheduling, operations, dynamic pricing, inventory management, sales optimization, and network optimization.

CRD’s delivery model pairs talented engineers with leading edge technology and project delivery tools. The company has 5 employees listed on LinkedIn.

The seed funding round raised $500,000, according to Crunchbase. Lead investor Trevor Burgess said the capital will be used to help CRD attract new talent and broaden its client base.

"After the Great Resignation, many tenured data science professionals gave up on traditional hierarchies in favor of a more impactful career,” Dezube said. “Charles River Data arose out of this historic moment, and we understand the career priorities of exceptional engineers, allowing us to recruit only extraordinary talent.”

Prior to founding CRD, Dezube spent over seven years at Google, where he was lead data scientist on Verily Health Platforms, focusing on analysis, machine learning, and modeling based on data from EHRs, hospital operations, and claims datasets. He has a master’s degree in systems engineering and a bachelor’s degree in operations research and information engineering from Cornell University.

“My own company, Neptune Flood, uses Charles River Data to help advance our model-as-a-service insurance risk platform,” Burgess said.

Burgess started his career at as a strategy consultant at Monitor Deloitte before joining Morgan Stanley, where he spent a decade and was latterly a managing director. He then joined C1 Bank as CEO, taking the entrepreneur-focused bank public before its acquisition by Bank OZK in 2016.

Burgess in 2018 founded Neptune Flood Insurance, which uses a sophisticated algorithm powered by advanced mapping and aerial remote sensing to provide customers with a policy in less than two minutes. The Tampa-based firm’s flood insurance policies are backed by Lloyd’s of London, Markel, and AXA.