data.world: Democratizing Big Data
How data.world is disrupting the massive database industry
Data is a critical element to all organizations — businesses, governments, nonprofits — which face the critical need to integrate and interpret data sources to unlock their value. data.world’s proprietary technology links data sets by using knowledge graphs — the same framework underpinning Google searches.
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The platform democratizes data by enabling anyone to
- Quickly find relevant data from diverse sources and file formats
- Get clear, accurate answers to business questions
- Understand data’s meaning in ways that can be enhanced and shared
- Collaborate, discuss, and use results to take action
Data vs. The Virus
The pandemic has highlighted the need to gather and analyze real-time data from disparate sources to understand its impact and find solutions. data.world is already addressing that need for a number of its clients. Salesforce leverages data.world to provide public access to the data used by the Tableau COVID-19 Data Resource Hub to visualize the spread of COVID-19. McKinsey is also using data.world to centralize pandemic data so it can analyze the virus’s implications for business, while The Associated Press is using data.world to distribute state-, MSA- and county-level coronavirus data so reporters can gauge local employment trends and impact.
What We Liked About the Deal
The market potential for big data ventures like this is enormous, and there are a number of factors that could help data.world become a leader in the space:
- World-class management team. The founders of data.world are proven entrepreneurs with impressive track records in data-driven startups. CEO Brett Hurt founded and led Bazaarvoice ($682M IPO & 70x return to lead investor First Round Capital) and Coremetrics (sale to IBM for $300M+). The other three co-founders were all top executives at HomeAway (acquired in 2015 by Expedia for $3.9B).
- Top investors. AVG participated in data.world’s Series B round led by Tech Pioneers Fund. Other investors included Breyer Capital, Prologis Ventures, Shasta Ventures, and Arthur Patterson (founder of Accel).
- Impressive traction. data.world started by creating the world’s largest open data catalog. The immediate market opportunity is $5B, projected to grow to $10B by 2024. Now, the company is creating an enterprise data market, which is expected to have virtually unlimited market potential as every medium to large organization benefits from an enterprise data catalogue. In the first year of its enterprise strategy, the company signed 13 corporate customers, including McKinsey, WPP, the Associated Press, CareOregon, and Wunderman Thompson.