data.world Raises $12M Third Round With Workday Ventures

Platform for modern data teamwork gets backing from Workday Ventures, The Associated Press (AP), and OurCrowd

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NEW YORK, Sept. 26, 2018 — data.world, the platform for modern data teamwork and the world’s largest collaborative data community, today announced that it has raised an oversubscribed $12 million third round of investment with Workday Ventures, The Associated Press, and OurCrowd. The investment brings data.world’s total funding to $45.3 million since its launch in 2016.

data.world awakens the hidden data workforce that lives within every enterprise company. The platform replaces outdated barriers with deep connections between data, people, and impact. When every employee can find, understand, and use data, advanced practitioners can focus on high-impact work, and enterprise companies can build data-driven cultures, faster. In its first two years, data.world has outpaced Github’s early user growth. The third round of funding will support data.world’s mission to build the most meaningful, collaborative, and abundant data resource in the world.

“People who are deeply analyzing data are not in decision-making positions and decision makers seldom understand the complexities of data,” said Brett Hurt, co-founder and CEO of data.world. “There is an urgent demand for a platform that bridges these gaps within an enterprise. The data divide between people and companies is becoming a bigger and bigger issue in corporate performance and longevity. Next-gen companies like Airbnb and Warby Parker were built to be data-driven from the ground up, and traditional Global 2000 companies are significantly behind and very motivated to catch up. And today we have the community know-how, integrations, customer service, and enterprise capabilities to help them rapidly do so.”

“We launched Workday Ventures in early 2018 to lend strategic investment and expertise to early growth companies developing emerging technology for the enterprise,” said Leighanne Levensaler, Senior Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Managing Director and Co-Head, Workday Ventures. “With a category-defining product, data.world is in a great position to continue its rapid growth as an enterprise solution.”

A future partnership between data.world and Workday could allow Workday users to more easily augment their enterprise data and analysis with the rich public data available on data.world provided by hundreds of data partners, including the US Census, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Commerce.

Workday Ventures is joined in the investment by AP, one of data.world’s earliest customers.  AP utilizes the data.world platform to share newsworthy data sets with news outlets it serves across the country. Through data.world, AP provides centralized access to data that its customers can mine for interesting story angles affecting their particular audiences. OurCrowd’s community of 25,000+ investors completed the round, giving data.world a global reach into some of the most prominent scientists and entrepreneurs in the world.

“We are actively trying to mitigate the risks of investing in innovation. We accomplish this by giving investors in our network the ability to invest in people with proven track records,” said Jon Medved, CEO of OurCrowd. “data.world’s product is a breakthrough, and the fact that their leadership team is also comprised of veteran entrepreneurs really generated some entrepreneurial excitement across our network.”

“AP was born back in 1846 as a cooperative of newspaper publishers sharing access to a fast horse to get news updates from the war in Mexico,” said Jim Kennedy, the news agency’s senior vice president for strategy and enterprise development. “The data.world platform is like that fast horse, enabling us to open important new territory for newsgathering in the 21st century. It has given us the ability to collaborate with our customers to tell stories from data on an unprecedented scale.”

“We are thankful that our investors also see our vision for the future,” said Hurt. “I’ve long been a fan of Workday and their amazing success at serving clients globally. They recognize the need for our enterprise solution and we’re excited to have their input and expertise going forward. I’ve also long been a fan of OurCrowd, and it is powerful to have their global network actively helping us as investors now. And it is incredibly validating to have our initial customer, the Associated Press, invest in our business. With them, we’ve been changing the field of data journalism and that feels very rewarding.”

About data.world

data.world is the platform for modern data teamwork and the world’s largest collaborative data community. Their enterprise catalog for data and analysis wakes up the hidden data workforce within every company, unifies silos, and creates data-driven cultures faster. The Austin-based Public Benefit Corporation and Certified B Corporation® serves the enterprise by speeding up data work and creating shared context to preserve and perpetuate essential project knowledge. Visit data.world and read our blogs Distinct Values and Meta for more.

About AP

The Associated Press is the essential global news network, delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world to all media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today is the most trusted source of independent news and information. On any given day, more than half the world’s population sees news from AP. On the web: www.ap.org.

About OurCrowd

OurCrowd is the leading global equity crowdfunding platform for accredited investors. Managed by a team of seasoned investment professionals and led by serial entrepreneur Jon Medved, OurCrowd vets and selects opportunities, invests its own capital, and brings companies to its accredited membership of global investors. OurCrowd provides post-investment support to its portfolio companies, assigns industry experts as mentors, and takes board seats. The OurCrowd community consists of almost 25,000 accredited investors from over 150 countries. OurCrowd has raised over $700M and invested in 150 portfolio companies and funds. To join OurCrowd as an accredited investor visit www.ourcrowd.com and click “Join.”