Continuum Analytics Raises $24M Series A for Anaconda Python and PyData | Hacker News Reader

Continuum Analytics Raises $24M Series A for Anaconda Python and PyData

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190 pointspwang42 comments

Very well deserved!

With Anaconda, I just tell my students to download a quick installer, slap on iPython or PyCharm, and it's ready to go. It's one less thing to worry about! The installation is dead-simple, and is almost exactly the same whether on Mac, Windows, or Linux. When I do data science, I don't want to have to be doing IT, too!

While I do like the ease of deployment for MKL binaries, I told my students "do it from scratch and learn sysadmin skills as well".

As a data scientist, admin/dev skills are a huge plus.

Works great if you have the time in the classroom. Sysadmin skills aren't among any of my learning outcomes, so I don't have time to cover it. My students are still trying to grapple with the idea of a for loop!

Fixxer, I totally agree that it's great that one be capable of doing these things, but sometimes it's not as important as other things that could be taught. Like acbart, sometimes I want to teach why/when to use a statistical algorithm and not teach them how to grab all the dependencies, troubleshoot whether they have gfortran installed, etc. This problem is horribly compounded teaching undergrads when you have Windows, Linux, and Mac users in your class, where the procedures for getting a working scientific stack vary, and the errors are often not the same across platforms.

When I install the scientific python stack on a new machine, I almost always just use Anaconda. I already know how to install the stack (I'll always value the weekend I spent in undergrad fighting with a customized BLAS in R!), but sometimes I have more pressing/fun things to do.

Sure. That is important to do a few times. Just like writing a compiler. However, most people do just fine using GCC and the same thing applies here.

Respectfully, I think your comparison is false. There are always new libs with awkward dependencies on platform X.

We would be absolutely stuck w/o conda's environment manager -- I can make sure we use exactly the same versions of the packages across our whole team.

It has also been helpful in aggressive desktop lock down corporations where I have to ask for each package to be approved prior to install.

Same. While I have a different, more custom install (homebrew), there is nothing simpler for students (or other people learning numeric/scientific/data-Python) than installing Anaconda.

(Plus seaborn - the only thing I recommend starting with, which is not (yet?) in Anaconda.)

I believe "conda install seaborn" will do what you need :)

Sure it does. I just wanted to say that the default set of packages is extremely well-chosen (as there is only one additional thing needed for my workflow when introducing Python).

Continuum are great benefactors in the Python community. With the explosion of "data science" in the last few years, I'm very hopeful that Python will keep holding its ground against the plethora of domain-specific languages that pop up, and Continuum are a big part of that.

As a Python newbie, Anaconda helped out a lot. Getting SciPy/NumPy/Pandas etc working on a regular Windows machine was a huge pain compared to just installing a single application.

WinPython did the same for me when I was a newbie. Still use it.

Congrats Travis, Peter and everyone from Continuum Analytics!

Thanks, Sahat! Hope all is well with you!

I'm grateful for everything Continuum has done for the Python community. They seem to have such an amazing team, and I'm glad to hear this.

Congrats! Looking forward to additional work on the already amazing pydata stack. Thanks for all your contributions to the community!

I'm collaborating with folks from Continuum, they are awesome! Congrats!

Thank you!

Awesome!

Like I always say: when these guys go public, I'll be the first in line to buy stock :)

Great team, great vision, great execution + no-bullshit, bottom-up approach.

Excellent news! The Anaconda distribution has been great for me, and CA's policy of free academic licensing for their go-fast extensions [0] is the cherry on top.

[0] https://store.continuum.io/cshop/academicanaconda

Also for people who never heard about Continuum:

http://venturebeat.com/2015/07/22/python-distribution-vendor...

Anaconda is a fine distribution where many otherwise hard to install tools work right out of the box.

Congrats Continuum!

Thanks, Ville! :)

Congratulations! Absolutely changed the Python game and great hosts of events as well.

Congrats, Peter!

Thank you!

Congratulations!

Anyone know where most of the money is going to be spent? R&D, sales?

Yes - all of the above. :)

We're able to more strategically invest in open source projects since we're not operating in hand-to-mouth mode.

We're able to pursue partnerships and push even better Python integration with industry partners, because we can now afford to make long-term investments like that.

We're able to hire more strategically to beef up the engineering team.

And we'll be able to field more sales and sales engineering personnel to ensure that customers doing cool things with Python/SciPy/PyData get all the support they need to succeed.

>We're able to more strategically invest in open source projects

Like numpypy?

Congrats Peter, Travis, Matt, and the rest of Continuum!

Hm, I was trying to contact them a while ago, as we seem like a good fit for each other. Never heard back, and I just accepted a offer from someone else.

Oh well. Good luck with that pile of money, CA.

Really sorry about that - we've been trying to clean up and streamline our hiring process, and your application must have gotten lost in the shuffle. I hope your new gig works out well!

S'ok. I didn't actually formally submit an application, just sent my CV through someone I met at Pycon. Maybe we'll talk again sometime in the future.

Way to go Peter, Travis, and the Continuum Team!

Congratulations! Well-deserved!

Congrats!!

congrats peter & travis! and see you today at pydata seattle :)

WOOT!

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