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Big Data Startups News: Funding, Acquisitions And IPOs Q4 2014

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Total VC funding for Internet-related startups was up 67% in 2014, according to CB Insights, reaching $19.6 billion. “Business intelligence, analytics, and performance management” deals (the CB Insights category which, one assumes, includes most or all big data-related deals) was the leading sub-segment with 10% or almost $2 billion of all Internet-related investments.

Internet VC funding in Q4 of 2014 was up 39% compared to the same period in 2013. The big data landscape has continued to expand at a fast pace in the last quarter of 2014, fueled by new investment rounds and re-shaped by new ideas, successful exits (for some), and reincarnation (for others).

Here are the funding and exits highlights of the fourth quarter of 2014 in the big data space.

New to the big data scene

Interana, providing event-based analytics software, has raised $8.2 million in Series A funding from Data Collective, Fuel Capital, Battery Ventures, and Silicon Valley Angels.

MetaMind, providing deep learning tools, has raised $8 million in initial funding round from Khosla Ventures and Marc Benioff (CEO of Salesforce.com).

Confluent, providing a real-time data platform built around Apache Kafka, has raised $6.9 million in seed funding from Data Collective, LinkedIn and Benchmark.

Sentrian, providing remote patient intelligence, launched at Singularity University's Exponential Medicine Conference. It has raised $12 million in financing including $4 million in seed funding and $8 million in a Series A round led by Reed Elsevier Ventures, Frost Data Capital and TELUS Ventures.

MedAware, providing analytics and machine learning tools for the medical prescription market (e.g., reducing prescription errors), has raised $1 million in Series A financing round led by equity crowdfunding platform OurCrowd with the participation of GE Ventures.

Japan’s NTT has invested over $1.5 million for 10% of Preferred Networks, developer of a big data platform for the Internet of Things.

Map-D Technologies, providing big data visualization, has raised $1.5 million in seed funding from Nvidia, Google Ventures, and numerous angel investors.

DrivenData is a for-profit startup that hosts online competitions for data scientists, focusing on “the world’s biggest social challenges.” The first competition, launched in October 2014, was sponsored by Education Resources Strategies (ERS), with the goal of producing an algorithm that will allow ERS to code financial files (i.e., school budgets) more accurately.

Indico, building a development environment for machine learning, has raised $3 million in seed funding  from Two Sigma Ventures, Boston Seed Capital, General Catalyst Partners and a number of angel investors. The founders are students at Olin College.

Funding

Mixpanel, providing an analytics platform for mobile and the Web, has raised $65 million in Series B funding from Andreessen Horowitz (at a valuation of $865 million), bringing total funding to $77 million.

Blue Yonder, providing big data analytics and predictive applications, has received a $75 million investment from an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm.

Alteryx, providing advanced analytics software, has raised $60 million in Series B round of funding led by Insight Venture Partners with participation from SAP Ventures and Toba Capital, bringing total funding to $78 million.

Altiscale, providing Hadoop as-a-service, has raised $30 million in Series B funding from Northgate, Sequoia Capital and General Catalyst Partners, bringing total funding to $42 million.

GoodData, providing cloud-based big data analytics, has raised $25.7 million in Series E round of funding led by Intel Capital, with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, General Catalyst, Tenaya Capital, TOTVS, Next World Capital, Windcrest, and Pharus Capital, bringing total funding to $101.2 million.

Scaled Inference, developing software that will bring machine learning to the masses, has raised $8 million in Series A funding from Khosla Ventures, bringing total funding to $13.6 million.

Netuitive, providing IT analytics, has raised $6.5 million in a round of financing led by MK Capital and Rembrandt Venture Partners with the the participation of Cross Creek Advisors and Columbia Capital, bringing total funding to $29.5 million.

­Zoomdata, providing a big data analytics platform, has raised $17 million in a Series B funding round led by Accel Partners with the participation of NEA, Columbus Nova Technology Partners, Razor’s Edge Ventures and B7, bringing total funding to $22.2 million.

Segment, providing a cloud-based repository for customer data, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Accel Partners with participation from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and e.ventures, bringing total funding to $17.6 million.

Predictix, providing cloud-based predictive analytics for the retail industry, has raised $15 million in Series A funding from Marlin Equity Partners, Kinetic Ventures, and ITC Holding Co.

InsightSquared, providing business intelligence software-as-a-service, has raised $13.5 million in Series C financing from Atlas Venture, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, NextView Ventures and Two Sigma Ventures, bringing total funding to $27 million.

Qubole, providing Hadoop as-a-service, has raised $13 million in Series B financing led by Norwest Venture Partners, bringing total funding to $20 million.

0xdata (renamed H2O), developer of open-source machine learning software H2O,  has raised $8.9 million in Series A funding from Ash Bhardwaj, Riverwood Capital’s Michael Marks, Rakesh Mathur, Nexus Venture Partners, Transamerica Ventures, and Jishnu Bhattacharjee,  bringing total funding to $13.6 million.

DeltaDNA, providing game analytics and personalization, has raised $3 million is Series A funding from Par Equity,  STV Group, the Scottish Investment Bank, the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise, and Edge Performance VCT, bringing total funding to $4.3 million.

Prelert, providing anomaly detection, has raised $7.5 million in Series B funding from Intel Capital, Fairhaven Capital and Sierra Ventures, bringing total funding to $11.3 million.

Metric Insights (founded in 2010), providing alerts to changes in key business metrics, has raised $2.1 million in seed funding from First Round,  Aster Data Founder Tasso Argyos, Linden Lab Founder Phillip Rosedale and Aerohive Networks Founder Changming Liu.

Exits

Hortonworks (founded 2011, raised $248 million), providing Hadoop software, training and services, went public by offering 6.25 million shares at $16 per share, raising $100 million.

New Relic (founded 2008, raised $214 million), providing analytics for application performance management, went public by offering 5 million shares at $23 per share, raising $115 million.

Vista Equity Partners acquired Tibco Software for $24 per share, in an all-cash deal that valued the infrastructure and business software company at $4.3 billion.

OpenText, providing Enterprise Information management solutions, acquired Actuate, provider of embedded analytics development tools, in an all-cash deal valued at US$330 million (acquisition completed in January 2015).

Cornerstone OnDemand, providing cloud-based talent management solutions, acquired Evolv, provider of HR analytics, for $42.5 million in cash and assumption of up to $2 million in debt. Evolv, founded in 2007, has raised $42.5 million in four rounds of funding.

AMN Healthcare Services, providing workforce and staffing solutions for the healthcare industry, acquired Avantas, a provider of data analytics and predictive modeling software, for $16.5 million. Avantas was acquired from Catholic Health Initiatives/Alegent Creighton Health.

Cloudera acquired DataPad, founded in 2013 to provide Python-based data analysis tools. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

Brickstream (founded 2000, raised $30 million) acquired NOMi (founded 2012, raised $13 million) in an all-equity deal. Both companies provide in-store analytics. The combined company was re-named NOMi in January 2015.

Groupon acquired Swarm Mobile (founded 2013, raised $4.5 million), provider of in-store analytics and promotions for undisclosed sum.

Target acquired Powered Analytics (raised $25,000), provider of in-store personalization and recommendation platform for undisclosed sum.

Note:  This list does not include the activities of companies that use big data analytics to develop their products or run their business but do not develop and sell big data analytics-related hardware, software, and services. An example from the fourth quarter of 2014 is Hampton Creek (aka mayonnaise disruptor), using advanced data analysis to develop eco-conscious, egg-free food products (it has raised a $90 million series C round of funding from Horizons Ventures, Khosla Ventures and other investors, bringing total funding to $120 million since launching in 2011).

 

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