Databento, a platform supplying market data to the modern financial industry, has secured $100m in a Series C round that values the business at $1.1bn.
Fifth Down Capital, which backed Databento in its early days, led the investment. Almost every one of the firm’s existing backers returned to take part, among them NEA, DRW Venture Capital, Tribe Capital and Hedosophia.
Fitch Ventures also came on board as a strategic investor, adding the viewpoint of a major financial information business with significant experience in credit ratings, financial data and market analysis.
The raise comes only months after Databento closed a $97m Series B earlier in the year. In the period since that deal, the company has grown its revenue more than twofold and has stayed profitable throughout.
Databento’s client base spans top quantitative trading houses, brokerages, asset managers, commodities businesses and digital asset firms. It has also built a notable foothold in the artificial intelligence space, securing enterprise agreements with five of the six biggest frontier AI labs.
At the time the Series C closed, the company employed 39 people, meaning it crossed the $1.1bn valuation mark with a much smaller workforce than conventional market data vendors typically need.
Databento will put the fresh capital towards further development of its market data infrastructure and towards broadening its coverage into more asset classes.
The firm delivers both live and historical data covering futures, options, equities and indices, all accessibleogy, from the original datafering of its type to pair the speed and dependability required by the world’s top trading firms with a far easier experience for developers
Databento co-founder and CEO Christina Qi said, “In this AI era, we’re seeing remarkably small teams build billion-dollar companies, but that level of efficiency is unprecedented in the market data industry.
“Until now, reaching this milestone required hundreds of employees given the sheer scale of physical infrastructure involved. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished, and we’ll continue to prioritize exceptional talent as we grow.”
Fifth Down Capital founder and CEO Andrew Spellman said, “Fifth Down first invested in Databento pre-revenue, as we recognized early on that the company had an opportunity to challenge the established model for delivering financial market data.
“Our confidence has only grown as Databento’s traction and execution have demonstrated it can serve demanding institutional customers, sustain rapid growth, and build a profitable business. Databento’s performance has reinforced our original thesis and strengthened our conviction in the company. We are thankful to Christina and Luca for the opportunity to increase our investment and involvement by leading the Series C financing.”
Investors
The following investor(s) were tagged in this article.
