Alation Announces $110 Million Series D to Accelerate Explosive Growth

Redwood City, Calif. – June 03, 2021 – Alation Inc., the data intelligence company, today announced it has raised a $110 million Series D round led by Riverwood Capital with participation from new investors Sanabil Investments and Snowflake Ventures. Existing investors Costanoa Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, Icon Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and Union Grove Partners also contributed to the round. Total funding raised stands at $217 million. Alation’s current market valuation is $1.2 billion.

The capital will help Alation meet increasing global demand for its data intelligence platform, which is emerging as the most critical technology investment to enable the modern, data-driven enterprise. Beyond accelerating go-to-market, the financing will also fund innovation in the form of new products and capabilities, furthering the company’s position as the leader in the data intelligence market. In addition, the company continues its expansion into new geographies, verticals, and product areas.

“We are excited to partner with Satyen, Aaron, and the incredibly talented team at Alation as they build the next category defining data intelligence platform,” said Jeff Parks, Co-founding Partner and Managing Partner, Riverwood Capital. “As a pioneer of the modern data catalog, Alation is uniquely positioned to help enterprises create thriving data cultures and is fundamentally re-shaping the process for making confident data-driven decisions.”

“There’s never been a stronger demand for Alation,” said Satyen Sangani, CEO and co-founder of Alation. “Alation empowers leading global brands to find, understand, and trust data. With the support of this investment group led by Riverwood, I could not be more thrilled with the opportunities this capital unlocks. We’ll be able to go faster. This is what our customers like Blackstone and Salesforce want. This is what our partners like Snowflake, Tableau, and Capgemini want. Most critically, it’s what people who use data desperately need to make decisions and innovate.”

The new strategic investment from Snowflake Ventures will significantly expand the partnership and joint value proposition for Snowflake and Alation customers. In addition to the investment, the two companies are planning to enhance user experience through deep product integrations and joint go-to-market initiatives. Alation will be featured in presentations during Snowflake’s user conference, Snowflake Summit, taking place virtually on June 8-10, 2021.

“As companies move to the cloud they need a solution that combines governance and data democratization to increase data-driven decision making across their organizations,” said Christian Kleinerman, SVP of Product, Snowflake. “Alation empowers our joint customers to get more value from the Data Cloud with the ability to govern data and have a seamless cloud transformation.”

Powered by AI, Alation is a comprehensive, single source of reference for an organization’s data. Powerful search & discovery capabilities inspire collaboration and support data-driven decision-making. Alation has been growing quickly, earning the trust of leading Fortune 500 companies from every industry. The customer base stands at more than 250, including global brands such as Bank of Montreal, Cisco, Exelon, Fifth Third Bank, GE Aviation, Munich Re, Nasdaq, New Balance, Pfizer, Travelers Insurance, and Vattenfall. To help customers drive additional value from their data and analytics investments, Alation has partnered with an extensive list of best-of-breed technologies, including AWS, Salesforce, and Snowflake.

Alation recently launched Alation Cloud Service, a cloud-based platform for data intelligence designed to enable customers to leverage innovations faster through continuous integration and deployment options. The company has received numerous accolades including Inc. Magazine’s Best Workplaces 2021 and The Information’s Top 50 Promising Startups, and recognition from leading industry analyst firms including being named a leader in the The Forrester Wave™: Machine Learning Data Catalogs, Q4 2020 and winner of the Technology Innovation Award from Dresner Advisory Services.

Supporting Quotes: “Alation has created one of the most powerful, user-friendly data catalogs on the market today. The collaborative user interface and strong data governance capabilities make Alation a key part of our technology stack and are why we invested in them,” said John Stecher, Chief Technology Officer at Blackstone. “We see Alation as a key way for our organization to harness the power of governed data and drive growth.”

“Alation continues to deliver strong, sustained growth by offering a mission-critical technology that transforms the way organizations operate,” said Raman Khanna, Managing Director, Dell Technologies Capital. “Alation is uniquely poised for success with its game-changing product and leadership team. We are excited to support the company through this next phase of its journey.”

“Giving everyone the right tools to discover, understand and use data in their work regardless of role, is critical to creating a data-driven culture and accelerating the digital transformation process,” said Francois Ajenstat, Chief Product Officer, Tableau. “We’re excited to partner with Alation and continue to help our joint customers utilize trusted data to make better decisions faster.”

Learn more:

• Read the blog Data Intelligence + Human Brilliance: The Future of the Data Catalog

• Join Alation’s growing team

• Learn about Alation