Stanford mathematics professor Gunnar Carlsson’s startup Ayasdi uses topological data analysis to better understand huge sets of data. While other companies focus on handling queries, Carlsson’s approach analyzes the shape of data and identifies patterns and clusters. These clusters help people to understand the larger picture of the big data analysis, as the clusters can represent segments of customers or patients, for example.

The Palo Alto-based startup was founded by Carlsson, Dr. Gurjeet Singh and Harlan Sexton. Following initial funding in 2008 from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), seed funding two years later led to the development of prototype technology. Last week, Ayasdi announced it was receiving more than $10 million in funding led by Khosla Ventures and Floodgate.

“But Silicon Valley is full of Big Data startups that promise to translate the ever-growing flood of digital data into practical insights in business and science,” notes The New York Times. “So what is different about Ayasdi?”

While other startups are focusing on software that efficiently manages data and handles queries, Ayasdi is relying on a completely new technique of mathematical analysis, one that evaluates topological data in a more unfiltered way.

The Ayasdi site shows visual examples in its Topological Network Gallery, which includes studies of NBA player performance, voting patterns within the U.S. House of Representatives, genetic patterns of human population and more.

“The discovery techniques of topological data analysis are going to have a huge impact, and Gunnar Carlsson is at the forefront of this research,” said Anthony J. Tether, former director of DARPA.

Customers including Merck, the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture use Ayasdi for drug discovery, oil and gas exploration, and financial market research.

According to Singh, Ayasdi co-founder and chief executive, the new funding “will be spent to build out the company’s business, adding marketing, sales and administrative staff members, as well as more engineers for project development of its cloud-based software service,” notes NYT.