(Reuters) – Alation Inc raised $123 million in a late-stage funding round backed by private equity firm Thoma Bravo that valued the data intelligence platform at $1.7 billion, the company said on Wednesday.
Besides Thoma Bravo, Saudi Arabia’s Sanabil Investments and venture capital firm Costanoa Ventures also led the Series E round, which comes more than a year after the ten-year old company’s previous fundraise that valued it at $1.2 billion.
The Redwood City, California-headquartered company exceeded $100 million in annual recurring revenue in September and said it plans to use the funds to expand its global workforce and invest in research and development and acquisitions.
Heightened volatility, aggressive interest rate hikes and dry appetite for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) have shut the door to the stock markets for many startups, which have turned to private investors for their capital needs.
However, such investors have not been totally immune to the souring sentiment. The third quarter saw $43 billion invested in VC deals, less than half of last year, according to data from PitchBook. Several startups have also seen down rounds.
“While negative volatility has many pre-IPO companies slashing valuations and halting investments, we defied the odds, raised $123 million, and increased our valuation,” said Satyen Sangani, Alation’s chief executive officer and co-founder.
Alation is a software-as-a-service platform that combines machine learning with human insights to offer a data catalog to over 450 customers, which include Nasdaq, Salesforce, Pfizer, Cisco and DraftKings.
New investor Databricks Ventures joined the latest round, which also saw participation from Dell Technologies Capital, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Salesforce Ventures and others.
(Reporting by Mehnaz Yasmin in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)
