Palantir Raises $450 Million, Now Valued At $20 Billion

Palantir, the makers of a data analytics platform used by government agencies, law enforcement, as well as financial, insurance, retail and healthcare industries, has confirmed by way of an SEC filing that it has raised an additional $450 million in a new round of funding. The filing indicates the company had offered $500 million in stock, which means $50 million more could still be in the works. According to a report by the WSJ, the funding was raised at a valuation of $20 billion, up from its late 2014 valuation of $15 billion.

Morgan Stanley and S F Sentry Securities Inc. are listed as brokers on the filing, which can be found here.

As noted by Business Insider, the filing confirms a report from last month that indicated the company was raising up to $500 million.

Palantir has historically been a very secretive company due to the nature of its work. Its software is used by government and law enforcement agencies, often to connect the dots between known criminals. (It’s probably the inspiration for the computer system in “Person of Interest,” if you ask me.)

While not much is publicly disclosed about the nature of its work, a leaked document TechCrunch came across this year detailed some of the software’s use cases and key clients. For instance,  a firm hired by the Securities Investment Protection Corporation used Palantir’s software to comb through over 40 years of records in order convict Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. And the LAPD used Palantir to connect 160 data sets when sorting its records.

In addition, the file revealed the firm’s work in Washington had expanded from eight pilots to over 50 programs by 2009 and by 2013 was used by 12 U.S. government groups, including the CIA, DHS, NSA, FBI, the CDC, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, Special Operations Command, West Point, the Joint IED-defeat organization and Allies, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Ahead of the new fundraising, Palantir was the fifth most valued “startup” (if the name still fits) behind Snapchat, Uber, Airbnb and Xiaomi, the WSJ noted. It’s now the fourth-most highly valued startup.

Palantir has raised around $1 billion to date, from investors including the CIA’s investment arm In-Q-Tel, Founders Fund and Tiger Global Management.