Kenmei is a European company founded by telecom and software experts, specialized in data analysis and mobile network automation through artificial intelligence. The company is known for its ADELE^® solution, which stands for Autonomous Decisions and Learning. It is a platform natively developed for big data environments and features advanced AI algorithms for automating network processes. It is also a multi-cloud solution supporting and integrating several data sources, implementing an advanced and unified data model that allows clients to evolve with their digital transformation towards a data-driven business model.

The Journey So Far

Kenmei was founded in Valencia, Spain, in mid-2018. At that time, it was seen that despite most of the companies had a goldmine of data, there was a lack of software solutions that would process and analyze the existing data to convert it into valuable information and to provide actionable insights. Several Communication Service Providers (CSPs) have been executing remarkable investments in their Big Data and Cloud infrastructures. One of the main objectives of that investment has been the creation of a data lake where multiple data sources could be stored to be used by multiple internal entities. To solve the problem of managing, operating, and analyzing this huge volume of data, Kenmei's software solution was envisioned back in mid-2018. It is a transversal, big-data native, and analytics solution delivering actionable insights.

Meet the Transformational Leaders

The Founders of Kenmei, Vicent Soler, Javier Grau, and Javier López have been working together as a team for over 15 years in mobile network technologies, from 2G to 5G. They have always nurtured the innovation spirit in their company. They are fully convinced that innovation is the only way to properly compete globally in the always-changing technological market. Kenmei's usage of AI-based algorithms and Big Data solutions will help CSPs to tackle current needs and challenges.

Bringing Benefits to the Clients Since 2018

Kenmei is one of the listed companies of the Spanish Government, which contributes to the national strategy of Artificial Intelligence. Their contribution in the AI domain is related to their core expertise in the Telco market. The intense usage of AI-based algorithms in their ADELE^® use cases makes the company fully aligned with the said national interest. In addition to AI, its software is completely based on Big Data architecture thus enabling large data volume processing, robustness, and scalability.

Solution for CSP's Ocean of Data

CSPs have billions of records per day from multiple data sources. The cardinality of records when combining data sources require advanced software capabilities that process and correlate them. There is no other way to obtain actionable insights from the available data than implementing a consistent and unified Data Model to properly implement trustable AI and Machine Learning. AI-based algorithms such as Root Cause Analysis (RCA) provide high value in terms of automation because they identify hidden issues while providing actionable insights to solve them. Machine learning algorithms bring accurate pattern behaviors that help to predict and anticipate issues before they have an impact on customers' experience. Therefore, intelligent automation solutions based on data analytics are a must for CSPs.

Forging Collaborative Strategies

Kenmei has recently announced a partnership with Vodafone Group aligned with its "Digital Network Program", to reduce operational costs, improve customer experience, and increased revenues. As part of Vodafone's Digital Network Program strategy, Kenmei will deliver Network Intelligence and Automation use cases by integrating its ADELE^® platform with Vodafone's analytics platform running on the Cloud. The combination of Telco and Big Data knowledge allows Kenmei to deliver innovative use cases in areas such as network automation, network intelligence, and data monetization. Such integration of expert Telco Logic ensures the final quality and explainability of the generated outputs.

Challenges on the Way

 According to Javier, having a native big data solution proved a challenge while approaching some CSPs that were not ready yet. Nevertheless, the added value of the use cases and the alignment with the long-term goals of the customers allowed the company to deliver those use cases at present in alternative ways, via professional services or SaaS models. Having a big data native platform in the background can be used as soon as the mobile operator becomes ready.

Even in big data ready CSPs, another important challenge has been the availability of historical data with high temporal granularity. "This is a very important issue for the predictive use cases that require machine learning algorithms with seasonal patterns. Therefore, the accuracy of the predictions can be impacted due to the challenges related to the availability of historical data," he added.

Moments of Recognition

Kenmei has been named the winner of the Entrepreneur XXI Award driven by CaixaBank, through DayOne, the specialized division in technological and innovative companies, and the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Tourism, through Enisa. The initiative aims to contribute to the development of young innovative firms with high growth potential. The company has recently closed a series of funding rounds to raise €1.5 million led by GoHub Ventures. It is a Global Omnium investment vehicle that was already a shareholder, joined by MASventures, an accelerator of the MASMOVIL GROUP, and Wayra, Telefónica's open innovation hub. The new transaction is a continuation of the one completed in August 2019, which raised €1 million.

The Future Looks Bright

Playing a market in its early stages, Kenmei is hopeful to follow a continuous growth of AI solutions for automating more tasks within mobile operators, even more taking into account the short-term deployment of 5G networks and the growth of the IoT market.