Datameer, the big data analytics company built on Hadoop, announced a $40 million Series E round today led by ST Telemedia, an investment firm based in Singapore.
Top Tier Capital Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Redpoint Ventures, Next World Capital and Software AG also participated. Today’s investment brings the total raised to over $76 million.
The company deliberately went with a firm based in Asia for this round to achieve a primary goal of expanding into Asian markets, Datameer CEO Stefan Groschupf told TechCrunch. ST Telemedia (STT) has deep connections to the types of companies Datameer tends to work with such as telecommunications firms
In fact, a big data company like Datameer is an atypical investment for STT, but it’s more than a simple financial transaction in this case. STT is also planning to use Datameer technology across its investment portfolio, Groschupf said.
“Big data is so fundamentally changing business and they wanted to get on board with a big data analytics company,” he said.
The majority of Datameer’s 200 customers are from North America with about 20 percent from the EU and a smattering from Asia. Customers include Citi and Bank of America, as well as British Telecom, Telefonica and Comcast.
He said to this point, he has primarily grown his company by taking on a relatively modest amount of investment capital — $36.8 million over four rounds before this announcement — while running mostly on revenue raised from sales.
He believes the company has gone about as far as it can with this approach, and needed additional capital to move to the next level. The money could actually lay the groundwork for an IPO.
“I think that in a couple or three years, we can be at a revenue size that the next major finance event (an IPO) is coming. We are building a team out to make a sustainable company,” he said.
In fact, he sees his company on a kind of mission. “We believe big data analytics is key to making the world a better place,” he said. To that end, he said Datameer is trying to build a product that has a positive impact on customers.
“We are insanely focused on customer support and being a company that holds to what it promises,” he said. It even lists its core values on its website.
Datameer plans to use some of the money to add employees. It currently has around 160, but hopes to have between 220 and 230 by year’s end. He admits that finding quality employees isn’t easy.
“One of the most difficult things in building a great company is hiring. Hiring truly great people is really challenging. You are basically meeting someone three or four times and you need to make a decision if you want to ‘marry’ them.”
The company has offices in San Francisco and New York. Its engineering team is based in Halle (Saale) Germany.
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