In recent years, academia in Europe has become an increasingly fertile breeding ground for innovative technology start-ups. But few have had the kind of recognition that has been bestowed on Lumio.

The company, originally known as MINEit Software, was spun out of the University of Ulster in 1998 as a data analysis consultancy. But since June 2000, when it released its EasyMiner web analytics tool, the company has picked up a string of awards and a few notable customers.

Having been awarded Information Management Product of the Year, New CRM Company of the Year, and the Grand Prize of the European Information Society, the company re-positioned and rebranded its technologies in early 2002 in an effort to widen its appeal.

At the core of the company's new Re:cognition suite is Re:search, the former EasyMiner product, which helps organisations interpret customer behaviour across the web and other digital channels. It uses a unique, algorithm technology for delivering predictive models incorporating e-metrics, segmentation, sequence discovery and other knowledge-based measures of visitor and customer behaviour.

Alongside it in the suite is Re:action, a new marketing automation tool that uses the information generated by Re:search in real-time to moderate customer interactions. Other modules include Re:order (formerly known as Capri), a proprietary sequence detection tool that automatically sifts large, complex databases, searching for all significant sequential patterns, and Re:collect, a data collection tool for gathering web site usage data.

Early deal wins for Re:search include Siemen's Vertacross unit, which runs an online marketplace for the industrial automation industry, and the online travel agency Expedia.com.

Surprisingly the company has reached this point with funding of just €2 million. However, if it adds customers as fast as it has picked up awards, Lumio's future prospects should be bright.