{"id":11376,"date":"2022-02-09T14:04:08","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T14:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/09\/starburst-250m-funding-round-boosts-valuation-to-3-35b\/"},"modified":"2022-02-09T14:04:08","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T14:04:08","slug":"starburst-250m-funding-round-boosts-valuation-to-3-35b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/09\/starburst-250m-funding-round-boosts-valuation-to-3-35b\/","title":{"rendered":"Starburst $250M funding round boosts valuation to $3.35B"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Starburst Data Inc.<\/a>, which sells a commercial distribution of the Trino distributed SQL query engine, today kicks off its Datanova<\/a> conference with the announcement that it has raised a $250 million late-stage funding round that values the company at $3.35 billion.<\/p>\n

Starburst, which is profitable, hasn\u2019t yet spent any of the $100 million it raised just over a year ago<\/a>, but Chief Executive Justin Borgman (pictured) said he hopes the new Series D funding will accelerate it toward a goal of an initial public offering within three years. Starburst has raised a total of $414 million.<\/p>\n

The company has allied itself closely with the concept of a \u201cdata mesh<\/a>,\u201d in which business units within enterprises that are closest to data take ownership of it, curate it and expose it as a product to internal and external constituents. That requires additional tooling, and Starburst is using the funding announcement to introduce updates to its enterprise product that simplify the curation process.<\/p>\n

Record funding<\/h3>\n

The funding continues the feeding frenzy among venture capitalists for all things cloud and data analytics. CB Information Services Inc. recently reported that global venture investments reached record highs in 2021 growing 111% over the previous year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The trend has been helped by low interest rates that keep down capital costs and limit investors\u2019 options for other places else to put their money. Signs that interest rates may soon increase were among the factors that prompted Starburst to seek the funding now, Borgman said.<\/p>\n

The whole process took only three weeks, the CEO said. \u201cThere\u2019s an appetite for those that investors perceive to be leaders in their category,\u201d he said. At the same time, \u201cthere\u2019s been a correction in multiples on the public side. Companies like Databricks and ourselves will have continued success fundraising but it will get harder for those that don\u2019t have as much traction.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one reason Starburst will be looking harder at using its cash hoard for acquisitions. \u201cThat was one of the motivations of raising the capital,\u201d Borgman said. Asked what gaps the company needs to fill he said, \u201cWe\u2019re big believers in data mesh, so anything that helps facilitate that model.\u201d<\/p>\n

The funding will also be split between sales and engineering and fund an initiative to enter the Asia-Pacific market this year. Starburst said it grew both its headcount and customer base threefold last year.<\/p>\n

Data as a product<\/h3>\n

On the product front, the company said its enterprise software now includes features that allow data owners to build and share data products along with native access controls for building a data mesh. Governance features have been enhanced with additional access controls.<\/p>\n

Such features are needed in a data mesh environment because users work directly on each other\u2019s data and create products such as joins and queries that require security controls, Borgman said.\u00a0Data producers and data engineers can define relevant metadata needed to understand usage metrics, and create, publish, find and manage curated data products based on multiple data sets.<\/p>\n

Enhanced metadata features give data owners visibility into how their product is being used. \u201cThink reviews on Amazon,\u201d Borgman said. \u201cConsumers are giving interactive feedback. It mimics a storefront internally.\u201d<\/p>\n

The financing round was led by Alkeon Capital Management LLC, with participation from Altimeter Capital Management LP<\/span> and\u00a0B Capital Group US LLC.\u00a0 E<\/span>xisting investors Andreessen Horowitz LLC, Coatue Management LLC, Index Ventures SA and Salesforce Ventures LLC also participated.<\/p>\n

Photo: SiliconANGLE<\/h5>\n
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