Fast Data Science

What Fast Data Science does

Fast Data Science Ltd is a London-based, founder-operated NLP and data science consultancy founded in 2016 by Thomas Wood (Cambridge Masters in NLP, 2008). The firm's core activity is bespoke data science consulting — fixed-fee and daily-rate engagements covering predictive modelling, NLP model development, AI strategy, technical due diligence, and document analysis — delivered primarily by the director personally with per-project expert support. Clients span healthcare (NHS, WHO, CBT Clinics), pharmaceuticals (Boehringer Ingelheim, Wellcome Trust, MediSpend), legal (courts via expert witness work, Insolvency Bot users), retail (Tesco, CV-Library, Mango Languages), government/regulators (ICO, Ordnance Survey, Office of Rail and Road, Tarion) and academic/non-profit partners (Ulster University, UCL, White Ribbon Alliance).

The technology stack is Python-centric, built on scikit-learn, TensorFlow, spaCy, NLTK, and Plotly Dash, with deployments on Microsoft Azure (the firm is a Microsoft Partner), AWS, GCP, or on-premises depending on client requirements. Generative AI workloads primarily use OpenAI and Gemini APIs alongside in-house fine-tuned models. Notable proprietary assets include the Clinical Trial Risk Tool (a self-serve SaaS that scores clinical-trial protocol PDFs on 50+ risk/cost variables), Harmony (an AI data-harmonisation platform funded by the Wellcome Trust and co-developed with Ulster University, UCL and Universidade Federal de Santa Maria), the open-source drug_named_entity_recognition Python library, the RAG-based Insolvency Bot, an NLP Dashboard, forensic stylometry tooling, and Google Sheets plugins for drug-name and UK company recognition.

Commercially, the firm runs a hybrid sales-led and product-led model. Direct enterprise and government sales are generated via website contact form and phone, supplemented by public-sector procurement (RFP, UK Digital Marketplace, Wellcome/Gates/UKRI grants). Product-led growth runs through self-serve web demos (Harmony, Clinical Trial Risk Tool, NLP Dashboard, Insolvency Bot, Author Identification) and open-source GitHub distribution. Pricing is quote-based, biased toward fixed-fee project contracts with retainer and discounted academic/non-profit tiers as alternatives. Revenue is undisclosed; the firm is bootstrapped, privately held, and shows no external funding rounds in the source material.

Name

Fast Data Science

Legal name

Fast Data Science Ltd

Website

https://fastdatascience.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Fast Data Science is a London-based NLP and data science consultancy that builds bespoke AI solutions — predictive models, document NLP, and domain tools — for healthcare, pharmaceutical, legal, retail, and public-sector clients, supplemented by a SaaS product (Clinical Trial Risk Tool), the Harmony research platform, and open-source libraries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI and Data Science Consulting

NAICS

Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169), Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (541690), Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374)

akta.pro primary industry

Data, Analytics & AI Consulting (BPAHAEAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Advanced Analytics & Data Science Services (BPAEAHAE), Clinical Trial Informatics (EDC/CTMS/eCOA/eTMF) (HLAGAJAM), Clinical & Translational Informatics (Clinical Data Integration/Real-World Data for R&D) (HLAGAJAF)

Keywords

• Natural language processing
• Machine learning consulting
• AI strategy consulting
• Data science services
• Clinical trial analytics

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Professional Data Science Consulting: The primary revenue stream. Clients hire Fast Data Science for bespoke NLP, AI, and data science consulting projects. Engagement types include predictive modelling, document analysis, NLP model development, AI strategy, and technical due diligence. Pricing is typically fixed-fee for the entire job, with daily rate options for ongoing retainer engagements. Serves commercial, non-profit, public sector, and academic clients worldwide.
2. SaaS / Software Product (Clinical Trial Risk Tool): The company offers the Clinical Trial Risk Tool as a software-as-a-service product. While primarily consulting-driven, the tool represents a productised SaaS component generating recurring software value.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

Fast Data Science is a London-based NLP and data science consultancy that delivers bespoke AI, machine learning, and natural language processing consulting for healthcare, pharmaceutical, legal, retail, and public-sector clients. Alongside consulting, the company operates a portfolio of standalone AI tools including the Clinical Trial Risk Tool SaaS, Harmony data harmonisation platform, and the Insolvency Bot legal chatbot, plus open-source Python libraries for drug name recognition.

Product overview

Fast Data Science is a specialist NLP and data science consultancy with a portfolio of AI-powered tools and consulting services. The core products include the Clinical Trial Risk Tool (SaaS for analyzing clinical trial protocols), Harmony (data harmonization platform for researchers), and the Insolvency Bot (legal Q&A chatbot). Supporting tools include NLP Dashboard for survey analysis, Drug Names Plugin and UK Company Details Plugin (Google Sheets integrations), Company Name Recognition, and Forensic Stylometry/Author Identification. The company primarily offers professional consulting services alongside these software products, all focused on extracting value from unstructured text data using NLP and machine learning.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Clinical Trial Risk Tool: A SaaS product that analyses clinical trials to produce a risk score and estimated cost of running a clinical trial
• Harmony
• Drug Names Plugin
• UK Company Details Plugin
• NLP Dashboard
• Insolvency Bot

Products and services

• Clinical Trial Risk Tool A SaaS web application (clinicaltrialrisk.org) that analyses PDFs of clinical trial protocols and outputs a risk score, estimated cost, and 50+ complexity metrics to identify risk factors that could render a trial uninformative. Aimed at pharmaceutical sponsors and clinical research organisations.
• Harmony

Quantifiable outcome

• 3% increase in accuracy of customer basket weight predictions for Tesco across 15 million customer and address combinations
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers16 records

Segments7 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability7 records

Feature9 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Ulster UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 November 2022Ulster University is a core academic partner in the Harmony project, a global platform for mental health questionnaire harmonisation. The collaboration involves the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at UCL and Universidade Federal de Santa Maria in Brazil. Thomas Wood of Fast Data Science developed the AI backend for Harmony. The partnership is ongoing and co-development is evidenced by joint publications in BMC Psychiatry and peer-reviewed preprints.
• University College London (UCL)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 November 2022UCL's Centre for Longitudinal Studies is a core academic partner in the Harmony project alongside Ulster University, Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, and Fast Data Science. Joint publications on mental health questionnaire harmonisation using NLP have been produced, including work published in BMC Psychiatry 2024.
• Universidade Federal de Santa MariacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 7 November 2022Universidade Federal de Santa Maria in Brazil is a core academic partner in the Harmony project for mental health questionnaire harmonisation. Contributed to international collaboration on multilingual NLP for psychology research.
• Wellcome TrustcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWellcome Trust funded the Harmony project (Wellcome Data Prize), enabling the development of the Harmony NLP tool for mental health questionnaire harmonisation. The partnership has produced multiple joint academic publications and a publicly accessible web tool.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Market position

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/fastdatascienc1
• GitHubgithub.com/fastdatascience
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCLPrDH7SoRT55F6i50xMg5g
• Facebookfacebook.com/fastdatascienceltd
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/18512544
• Instagraminstagram.com/fastdatascience

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Fast Data Science