Collibra nabs $50M led by ICONIQ to fix companies’ data governance

Data governance and management startup Collibra — originally founded in Belgium but now based out of New York to help businesses in sectors like finance and healthcare to manage and comply with data retention policies — has raised $50 million in its latest round of funding.

The company is not disclosing the valuation, but a $650 million figure is being publicly reported in at least one database. Some insiders dispute that figure as too high, however.

All that we’ve been able to squeeze out so far is that “there is a significant increase in our valuation following this round” (bolding theirs). It brings the total raised by the company to just $75 million to date.

This latest round is notable for a couple of reasons, one because of who’s doing the investing and one because of what it points to in the wider market for enterprise IT:

The Series C is being led by ICONIQ Capital, the somewhat under-the-radar firm that acts both as an investment fund and family office for the likes of the Zuckerbergs, Sheryl Sandberg, Reid Hofmann and Jack Dorsey.

Others in this round include Battery Ventures and previous investors Dawn Capital, Index Ventures, and Newion Investments. Although Collibra is now based out of NYC, its roots are in Belgium. This would make it ICONIQ’s second disclosed investment in a startup from the Lowlands, after the company put funding into Dutch startup Adyen in 2015.

According to Collibra, this Series C will be used to continue to expand its business, which is helping companies verify and manage their data.

“Big data” has been the term du jour in the enterprise software space for at least the past two years… the phrase has become so over-used that it’s almost a punch line.

However, behind the jargon is a hard fact that data is important. It’s good for businesses to know where their data comes from, how reliable it is, and how best to use it.

That’s the problem that Collibra purports to solve. Services that it covers includes compliance with BCBS 239CCAR MRAs and GDPR; demonstrating data protection and security; fixing bad dataanalytics; and data discovery.

“Data’s day has come. And with that, organizations have recognized that data can only be leveraged as a strategic resource to the extent it can be accessed and, most important, trusted,” said Felix Van de Maele, CEO and co-founder of Collibra, in a statement. “This Series C funding round from two of the industry’s most highly respected and successful investment firms is tremendous validation of the increased adoption of data governance as a corporate discipline.”

It’s also an area that investors clearly see as an opportunity in the wider framework of enterprise services.

“Collibra was born to address a real problem: how enterprises can meaningfully leverage data to transform their businesses,” said ICONIQ’s Matt Jacobson, who will join the board with this investment. “We have been very impressed with how large, sophisticated customers have spoken about the strength of Collibra and its emerging market leadership. I’m personally excited to work hands-on with Felix and his team to support their continued success.”

More update on valuation.