Tampa AI firm Scion Analytics continues to grow

Tampa-based Scion Analytics’ momentum continues to take off as the company uses its artificial intelligence platform to help companies read data in government contracts, many of which can be long and daunting, filled with unstructured data. 

Scion originated in Washington, D.C. under a different name in 2012 and developed a platform that help automate the processing of government proposals. 

“Our platform takes out the manual labor of reading documents. In the case of government contracting, there can be hundreds of RFPs and the user needs to read all of these documents. We found that not only can our technology go through proposals, but it can also be used for resumes and other scenarios,” CEO Jim Eddy said regarding the platform’s versatility. 

Eddy has been a tech leader in the community for over 40 years. He has worked as a CTO for PAR (Psychological Assessment Resources) and in executive roles for GTE and Verizon. 

Scion Analytics has an office at 2701 N. Rocky Point, and a team of just over 20 people.

An unnamed Tampa Bay investor recently purchased the majority stake of the business to grow beyond government contracting and leverage the commercial side. Today, Scion Analytics serves many Fortune 1000 enterprises. 

“We were contacted by one of the larger banks and they asked if we could process European bonds and we actually could,” Eddy said on the penetration into different markets. 

As the firm hones in on the commercial clientele, Eddy said it is actively hiring software engineers, those in sales and business development. 

Eddy is confident those roles will be filled quickly given the growing number of tech talent in Tampa Bay and the number of companies relocating to the area. 

“We talk to a lot of large companies in New York, Chicago and they are all hearing about how Tampa has become a major tech hub, and (they) know about our Air Force base,” Eddy said. 

“I’ve worked in the Tampa Bay area since I was a teenager and I’ve seen it dramatically change. In the last few years, we had various incubators. It was very spotty at first, with not a lot of coordination. But now you see a lot of teamwork between universities, entrepreneurs, and activity from groups like Florida Funders and Synapse.” 

Scion Analytics is not currently seeking any funding. 

Eddy said the group may possibly be attending the Synapse Summit at Amalie Arena in February, an annual event that brings the local innovation ecosystem all under one roof.