AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 21, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- data.world, the social network for data people, today announced it has closed $18.7 million in venture capital funding at double the valuation of its previous round. This second round brings the total amount of capital raised to $32.7 million and places data.world among the technology sector’s top-5 venture-backed Certified B Corporations of all time. The new capital will be used to fund rapid progress toward the company’s mission to build the most meaningful, collaborative, and abundant data resource in the world.
The round was led by Pat Ryan’s family investment group and includes capital from Chicago Ventures, Fyrfly Venture Partners, Hunt Technology Ventures LP, LiveOak Venture Partners, Shasta Ventures, and Sherpa Asset Management AG.
Prominent angel investors participating in the round include: John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods; Danielle Pruitt, serial entrepreneur with extensive retail and design background; Arthur Patterson, co-founder of Accel and former director of the National Venture Capital Association; Walter Robb, former co-CEO of Whole Foods; Adam Ifshin, CEO of DLC Management Corp.; Ralph Mack of Mack Capital; Adam Zeplain, investor in After School and Andela; Scott Booth, initial investor in Alibaba and co-founder of Lead Edge Capital; and Kip Tindell, co-founder and Chairman of The Container Store.
“Amazing things happen when people join forces and use data to answer questions, solve problems, and rise to solve our most urgent societal challenges together,” said Brett Hurt, co-founder and CEO of data.world. “We’re proud to welcome an extraordinary group of investors on our journey to radically improve data discovery, usability, and most importantly, collaboration. Closing this second funding round so close to our first, and with most of it still in the bank, is a tremendous validation of the opportunity in front of us and the rapid progress we’ve made since our preview launch in July.”
data.world Momentum
data.world dismantles the barriers between people and data by linking datasets and introducing social features to enhance data science. With data.world, people who work with data can quickly and easily discover, prepare, and share it, as well as effectively collaborate in real time to solve important problems.
Since its preview launch in July 2016, the company has introduced core capabilities and vital new projects, as well as rapidly innovated to drive collaboration within public and private data workspaces and communities. These include:
The White House Opportunity Project: data.world workspace improves data discoverability and eases collaboration with data from 11 federal agencies and 12 cities.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL): data.world created a public, open data workspace to help understand and combat the rise of hate crimes.
U.S. Commerce Department NTIS: data.world named Joint Venture Partner to improve use of federal data.
U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) data.mil: First-ever Pentagon open data portal leverages data.world collaborative workspaces to invite exploration and public discourse.
CIA Crest Archive: data.world has independently collected, formatted, and published metadata on 930,000 newly-released declassified CIA documents, representing around 12 million pages.
dwSQL: Developed new dialect of SQL query language to bridge the gap between linked data and relational databases.
A New Breed of Company
As a public benefit corporation, data.world is legally structured to pursue its public benefit mission and shareholder value through growth, IPO, and beyond. This powerful corporate structure allows data.world to make a profound impact by democratizing access to the world’s data and creating a sustainable archive. data.world’s specific public benefit purpose can be found at data.world/benefit-statement.
data.world is also a Certified B Corporation, a prestigious designation awarded to over 2,000 companies globally that meet the highest standards of overall social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability, and aspire to use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.
Additional Comments on the News
“data.world is cracking the code on building a platform company that is transformational in its impact on business and society,” said Jason Pressman, Managing Director at Shasta Ventures and data.world Board of Directors member. “data.world has solved the hard, high-scale technical and social challenges involved in data collaboration to deliver an essential tool for all kinds of groups doing meaningful work.”
“Data collaboration within and across the enterprise will drive the next era of business,” said Pat Ryan Jr., Chairman, Chicago Ventures. “By making it easy to use and share data in both public and private configurations, data.world is fueling the next wave of innovation and growth.”
“data.world represents a massive market opportunity and is our biggest investment to date,” said Stuart Larkins, Co-Founder and Partner of Chicago Ventures. “Their proven executive team and phenomenal execution to date place it among the small handful of technology companies who have the potential to change the way we live and work.”
“We invest in mission-driven entrepreneurs because we know that success is driven by true passion,” said Julie Allegro, Co-Founder and General Partner at FYRFLY Ventures. “This is my third company with Brett, and his most ambitious one to date. I’m inspired to be part of a company and business strategy that is both successful and transformational in its positive impact on humanity. “
