Data Intelligence Tech Provider Alation Raises $123M In Latest Funding Round

Software investment firm Thoma Bravo, whose company portfolio includes Qlik and Talend, was among the investors in the Series E round that put Alation’s valuation at more than $1.7 billion.

Data Intelligence software developer Alation has raised $123 million in a Series E funding round, financing the company will use to accelerate its global expansion and continue its strategic product development efforts.

The impressive funding round comes as venture capital is becoming harder to come by given the current uncertain state of the economy. The late-stage funding round brings the Redwood City, Calif.-based company’s total financing to $340 million and boosts its valuation to more than $1.7 billion.

The additional financing will be used to increase product-focused research and development and possibly for acquisitions to expand Alation’s technology portfolio, the company said in a statement.

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The company also plans to add to its employee base, which has grown by 75 percent over the last year to more than 700 globally, especially adding to its ranks of development engineers, deployment professionals and support representatives.

Alation develops a number of software products including data catalog, data governance, and data search and discovery tools – all under the broader category of “data intelligence” – that help businesses and organizations find, understand and manage the increasingly huge volumes of data they own.

IDC puts the data integration and intelligence software market at $7.9 billion and forecasts it to reach $11.6 billion over the next four years.

“We raised $123 million because we wanted to continue to invest and give our customers the world-class data intelligence experience they deserve,” said Alation co-founder and CEO Satyen Sangani in a statement.

“The modern enterprise needs data in good times … and even more so in bad. With a challenging economic outlook, companies are looking to their data for direction, to drive operational efficiencies, and gain or maintain a competitive advantage,” The CEO said. “Alation makes that happen consistently with clients increasing their spend year-over-year. Our calling cards are consistent ROI, engagement, and adoption. This latest funding round will help us go even faster, so more organizations can harness the power of their data and convert this wealth of information into usable, trusted insights.”

The funding comes after five consecutive quarters of accelerated annual growth for Alation, including recently surpassing $100 million in annual recurring revenue, according to the company.

The funding round was led by Thoma Bravo, Sanabil Investments and Costanoa Ventures with participation from new investor Databricks Ventures. Others who participated in the round. Including some previous investors, included Dell Technologies Capital, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Icon Ventures, Queensland Investment Corp., Riverwood Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Sapphire Ventures and Union Grove.

Software investment firm Thoma Bravo is particularly active in the big data space, holding investments in business intelligence software company Qlik, ETL software developer Talend, and data platform providers Starburst and Imply.

“As companies continue their digital transformations, capturing and interpreting high-quality data is critical for decision-making and delivering stakeholder value,” said Robert (Tre) Sayle, a Thoma Bravo partner, in the statement. “Data intelligence is a high-growth market and Satyen and his talented team have built a leading platform trusted by enterprises worldwide.”

Alation also noted that the Databricks investment will expand the two companies’ longstanding partnership, which includes integrations between their two product lines, joint go-to-market initiatives and more than 100 shared customers.