Atlan, a data governance startup, has always had data at the core of its operations, even before its inception. Co-founders Prukalpa Sankar and Varun Banka initially worked on building India’s national data platform, SocialCops. It’s no surprise then that they’ve developed a tool aimed at managing and facilitating collaboration around data, striving to bring some order to the data chaos within large organizations.
Established in 2020, Atlan has seen the importance of data management grow exponentially. As companies strive to organize their data to leverage generative AI, the need for effective data governance has become even more critical. This could explain why Atlan announced a substantial $105 million investment at a robust $750 million valuation on Wednesday. The startup appears to be in the right place at the right time, addressing a pressing issue, and investors are keen to get involved.
Atlan operates on the understanding that every organization’s data ecosystem is inherently complex. The company aims to simplify this complexity and help people realize that despite the multitude of tools and data repositories, it’s possible to gain a comprehensive understanding of the overall data landscape.
Sankar explained to TechCrunch that Atlan scans an entire data ecosystem, connecting to various platforms like Snowflake, Databricks, BI tools, AI LLM models, and source systems like Salesforce. The goal is to create a single source of truth, essentially a map across an organization’s API ecosystem.
The vision is to construct a data fabric that aids in understanding how data interconnects across an organization. This makes it easier to collaborate around data, search through it, and automate the resolution of issues, such as a number that won’t update in a BI dashboard.
Sankar believes that companies spend excessive time trying to comprehend their data, ensuring its accurate delivery to dashboards, and making it accessible to the employees who need it most.
The company’s significant funding isn’t solely due to good timing. Atlan has seen its ARR grow 7x in the last two years and 31x in the last three years, impressive growth considering the company is only four years old. The startup also reports an 80% win rate in competitive trials in 2023.
While the exact number of customers wasn’t disclosed, Atlan counts Nasdaq, HubSpot, Elastic, Dr. Martens, and Porto Seguro among its client wins.
Currently, Atlan has a team of 275 employees, with plans to expand thanks to the new capital injection. While Sankar didn’t provide a specific hiring target, she confirmed that they are recruiting.
The recent funding round was led by GIC and Meritech Capital, with participation from existing investors Salesforce Ventures and Peak XV. Previous investors include Insight Partners and WaterBridge Ventures. To date, Atlan has raised a total of $206 million.