Dataiku is the latest well-funded startup to suffer from macroeconomic headwinds, raising new capital at a significantly reduced valuation. The company announced today that it has raised $200 million in a Series F funding round led by Wellington Management at a valuation of $3.7 billion, up from $4.6 billion. Evaluation which Dataiku received in August 2021.
A deposit with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission shows that Dataiku intends to close its Series F with up to $275 million. Wellington’s $200 million brings the New York-based startup’s total to around $600 million.
In a statement, Matt Witheiler of Wellington Management said, “Dataiku’s proven track record, leadership team, growth trajectory and customer roster enable the company to take AI to new heights. We are happy to partner and contribute to their impressive journey. Dataiku has taken a leadership position in helping companies leverage massive data sets at unprecedented speed and creating an AI culture focused on delivering cumulative business results.
The bump in the road is a surprise. Dataiku – which sells tools to help customers build, test and deploy AI and analytics applications – has managed to avoid major layoffs, unlike rivals such as DataRobot. And earlier this year, Dataiku signaled to investors that it has no plans to shift its growth strategy, revealing its recurring annual revenue for the first time ($150 million) and hiring a new CFO – the first external addition to its C-suite.
The hiring of new CFO Adam Towns fueled speculation that Dataiku was considering an IPO in the short term; Cities have previously helped bring Mimecast to the public market. But the F-Series announcement suggests a listing might actually be a long way off.
There are signs that venture capital investments in AI startups are cooling. A recent pitchbook report shows that dReal value growth for AI startups declined 27.8% quarter-over-quarter in Q2 2022, with aggregate investments reaching $20.2 billion across 1,340 deals. Year-to-date, VCs have injected $48.2 billion into AI startups through more than 3,000 deals – which sounds healthy but is actually a 20.9% decline from a year to year.
According to a press release, Dataiku’s customer base now numbers more than 500 companies, including more than 150 of the world’s largest companies. According to Florian Douetteau, co-founder and CEO of Dataiku, they use the platform for use cases such as predictive maintenance, supply chain optimization, quality control in engineering and marketing optimization.
“Companies overwhelmingly understand that now is the time to embrace AI — or risk falling behind,” Douetteau said in a statement. “Our ability to attract new market-leading investors, like Wellington, in this challenging environment underscores the strength of our solutions, our world-class team and the exciting opportunities ahead. We are on the cusp of a massive market transformation with AI at its heart – and we are ready for the moment. »
Dataiku, which launched in Paris in 2013, competes with a number of companies for dominance in AI and big data analytics. The most formidable rivals include Databrickwhich raised $1.6 billion in August 2021, and the aforementioned data crawlerwhich fetched $300 at a valuation of $6.3 billion in July 2021.
In recent years, Dataiku has sought to expand its pool of startup and small-to-medium business customers, introducing a fully managed version of its data science platform called Dataiku Online. Dataiku has also launched new tools that enable companies to design and deploy AI and analytics applications, transform raw data into advanced analytics, and design machine learning models for use in their own applications and services.