Our verdict
Advancing Analytics is the firm UK and European enterprises, mostly insurers, consumer brands, healthcare bodies, and games companies, hire to build a Databricks lakehouse and then run generative AI and machine learning on it. It prices above the market: its G-Cloud 15 day rate for a senior solution architect is about $2,470 against a framework median of about $1,450, and its closest rivals are other data platform specialists such as Unit8, Aimpoint Digital, and Analytics8. Choose it if your data platform is Databricks, but not for a neutral platform choice, since Databricks Ventures is now an investor.
The right buyer
- Companies standardizing on Databricks that want the deepest bench they can find. It is a Databricks Gold partner with six Brickbuilder specializations and about 15 Databricks Champions on staff (founders’ blog), one of only 35 Gold Brickbuilder holders worldwide (investment announcement).
- Insurers and other firms buried in documents. For a UK home and motor insurer, its claims summaries cut review time per claim from 30 minutes to 10 seconds (insurer case study), and contract analysis for a diagnostics manufacturer took 95% less processing time (contracts case study).
- Games and media companies with high-volume event data. SEGA Europe’s streaming pipelines handle more than 40,000 events a second (SEGA case study), and Creative Assembly’s game telemetry went from a 24-hour delay to minutes (Creative Assembly case study).
- UK public-sector bodies, which have been able to buy from it directly as a G-Cloud 15 supplier since August 6, 2026 (G-Cloud announcement).
Reasons to look elsewhere
- Its rates are high. Its G-Cloud 15 maximum day rates run from about $1,200 to $4,000 by role, and its senior solution architect rate of about $2,470 compares with a framework median of about $1,450 (G-Cloud listing; G-Cloud Kit; Bank of England rate, Oct 26, 2026).
- It will not give a neutral view on platforms. Its CTO says the firm is “all-in” on Databricks (founders’ blog), and Databricks Ventures invested in it in August 2026 (announcement).
- Several of its strongest AI results, including the insurer, the diagnostics manufacturer, and a global media group, come from clients it does not identify (case studies).
- Its teams are in the UK and Portugal. Expansion to the US East Coast is a goal for 2030, not a presence today (founders’ blog).
Advancing Analytics, At A High Level
We read the founders’ blog, the Lead Edge Capital and Databricks Ventures announcements, and the About page to see who started Advancing Analytics, who invested in it in 2026, and which partners it works with.
Advancing Analytics is a data and AI consultancy in London, England, that designs and builds Databricks lakehouses and the machine learning and generative AI systems that run on them.
- Founded in 2018 by Terry McCann, its CEO, who was joined in 2019 by Simon Whiteley, now CTO and co-founder (investment announcement; founders’ blog).
- Has about 125 people and plans to triple in size by 2030 (founders’ blog). It is remote-first, with offices in London, Exeter, Manchester, and Lisbon, Portugal (Lisbon blog; Manchester opening).
- Holds Gold status in the Databricks Brickbuilder partner network (Gold announcement) and is recognized by Microsoft as a solutions partner for Data and AI and for Azure, with over 50 lakehouse-certified developers and two Databricks MVPs (About page). It also partners with AWS, Anthropic, and OpenAI (G-Cloud announcement).
- Took a growth investment from Lead Edge Capital in June 2026 and investment from Databricks Ventures and Tercera in August 2026, the first UK-headquartered consulting firm Databricks Ventures has backed (Lead Edge announcement; Databricks Ventures announcement).
- Has its own products, among them LakeForge for AI-assisted coding with guardrails, the Gener8 generative AI platform, and the Hydr8 framework clients use to set up a data platform (homepage).
- Runs a YouTube channel on Databricks and data engineering that passed 50,000 subscribers in October 2026 (announcement).
Its documented client work includes:
- A generative AI system on Azure Databricks for a diagnostics manufacturer that reads contracts in English, French, and German, pulls out about 100 attributes with a three-model ensemble, and cut processing time by 95% at 90% accuracy (case study).
- Claims summarization for a UK home and motor insurer that cut the time to review each claim from 30 minutes to 10 seconds (case study).
- A streaming data platform for SEGA Europe on Databricks that handles more than 40,000 events a second and brought time to insight from 30 minutes to under five (case study).
- Game telemetry for Creative Assembly covering 150 TB and about half a billion events a day, with data delays cut from 24 hours to minutes (case study).
- A machine learning operations platform for Novuna that made model deployment 60% faster (case study), and a design for reducing alert fatigue for a clinical decision support provider whose platform records about 2,000,000 messages in a typical month (case study).
Scores by criterion
For Advancing Analytics we weighed eight criteria against its case studies, its Databricks partner announcements, and its G-Cloud 15 listing.
| Criterion | Weight | Score | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Production track record | 20% | 8.0 | Production systems for SEGA Europe, Creative Assembly, Novuna, Hershey, and an anonymous UK insurer, with measured results. |
| Technical depth | 15% | 8.5 | Gold Brickbuilder partner with six specializations, about 15 Databricks Champions, two Databricks MVPs, and its own accelerators. |
| Industry depth | 10% | 7.5 | Repeated work in insurance, consumer goods, healthcare, games, and media. |
| Delivery model and handoff | 15% | 7.5 | Builds alongside client teams so they can own the platform; Hershey says it now has the capabilities it needs in-house. |
| Commercial clarity | 10% | 7.5 | Publishes maximum day rates for every role on G-Cloud 15; no prices for private-sector buyers on its own site. |
| Platform independence | 10% | 5.5 | All-in on Databricks, now a Databricks Ventures portfolio company; Microsoft and AWS work comes second to that. |
| Stability and scale | 10% | 8.0 | Operating since 2018 with about 125 people, four offices, and two 2026 investment rounds. |
| Independent evidence | 10% | 6.5 | Fully attributed client quotes from Hershey, SAGA, and WPA, plus Databricks partner status; several large results are anonymous. |
| Overall | 100% | 7.5 | Weighted average |
Where Advancing Analytics fits and where it does not
A company that has chosen Databricks and one still choosing between platforms want different things from Advancing Analytics, and the four rows cover both, along with lakehouse builds and generative AI on claims and contracts.
| Need | Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A new or migrated Databricks lakehouse | Strong | Gold Brickbuilder partner; SEGA Europe and Creative Assembly platforms. |
| Generative AI on documents such as claims and contracts | Strong | Insurer claims summaries in seconds; diagnostics contract extraction in three languages. |
| Machine learning operations and model deployment | Good | Novuna deployment 60% faster; a design for a clinical alert-reduction system. |
| Choosing between Databricks, Snowflake, and other platforms | Weak | Committed to Databricks and backed by Databricks Ventures. |
What clients say about Advancing Analytics
The Advancing Analytics homepage carries comments from Hershey, SAGA, and WPA, and each is quoted in full.
“The Commercial Data Store, built with Advancing Analytics on Azure Databricks, is our single source of truth for real-time, actionable insights, including Walmart Luminate. It connects business and technical teams, making Hershey stronger and more innovative. We now have all the capabilities we need in-house.”
“Working with Advancing Analytics has not only been a pleasure, as they have supported us at every step along the way but has enabled us to take a step change in our approach to data modelling and machine learning which in turn opens up multiple opportunities across our diverse business units.”
“The Hydr8 framework allowed us to build a Modern Data Analytics Platform from a solid, tried-and-tested foundation, and then tailor it for our environment. This cut many months from the implementation phase of the project and ultimately set us up for success.”
Who leads Advancing Analytics
Terry McCann started Advancing Analytics in December 2018, and Simon Whiteley joined him as director of engineering in May 2019; they now lead it as CEO and CTO.
Terry McCannCEO and co-founder, Advancing Analytics
Simon WhiteleyCTO and co-founder, Advancing AnalyticsSources (20)
- Advancing Analytics: homepage
- Advancing Analytics: About us
- Advancing Analytics: Case studies
- Advancing Analytics: Databricks Ventures, the founders’ view (August 21, 2026)
- Advancing Analytics: Databricks Ventures investment (August 18, 2026)
- Advancing Analytics: Lead Edge Capital investment (June 11, 2026)
- Advancing Analytics: G-Cloud 15 supplier (August 6, 2026)
- Advancing Analytics: Databricks Gold partner (February 12, 2026)
- Advancing Analytics: Manchester office (April 13, 2026)
- Advancing Analytics: Lisbon office
- Advancing Analytics: 50,000 YouTube subscribers
- Advancing Analytics: Diagnostics manufacturer contracts case study
- Advancing Analytics: UK insurer claims summarization case study
- Advancing Analytics: SEGA Europe case study
- Advancing Analytics: Creative Assembly case study
- Advancing Analytics: Novuna case study
- Advancing Analytics: Clinical prescribing guidance case study
- Digital Marketplace: Advancing Analytics G-Cloud 15 listing and rate card
- G-Cloud Kit: G-Cloud 15 day rate benchmarks
- Bank of England spot rate, Oct 26, 2026: $1.3347 per pound, used to convert G-Cloud 15 day rates published in pounds