Startup Observable Secures $35.6 Million to Further Advance Its Data Collaboration Platform

By Adriaan Brits | Thursday, 13 January 2022 | Startup, Tech

Data collaboration startup company Observable announced it has bagged $35.6 million in a Series B funding round led by Menlo Ventures.

A Comprehensive Data Collaboration Platform

Existing business investors Sequoia Capital and Acrew Capital also took part in the business funding round, which pushed the total funding raised to $46.1 million.

Founded in 2016, the startup company is a collaborative, data visualization platform used to improve the decision-making process. The startup company intends to use the raised business funding to spur its growth and invest in further development of its platform. 

Observable provides an all-in-one data solution that unifies all of the parts of the data workflow, including reports, analysis, dashboards, and more. 

Observable’s “State of Dataviz 2021 Report” showed that data practitioners are forced to use 3+ different solutions to perform their tasks. Because of this, their data work becomes slower and prone to risks. As a result, other data scientists, analysts, developers, and data practitioners are longing for a more effective solution. 

“Data is the world’s most powerful asset. We are building an environment where anyone can see and manipulate data to more fully understand and communicate the story it tells,” said Melody Meckfessel, co-founder and CEO of Observable.

“Collaboration is at the center of work, whether it’s between teams at a multinational corporation or among our community of dataviz creators who are constantly building, sharing, and learning from each other. Observable is empowering millions of people to understand their data better, together,” she added.

The startup company’s comprehensive platform unifies data, contest, and logic so its users are able to generate data-driven insight faster to significantly enhance their decision-making process. The platform provides real-time, multi-player collaboration with transparent data interrogation.

The platform is easy to use as users only have to open their browser and access the comprehensive library of templates and code snippets. Users can also choose from thousands of other examples generated by the Observable community as well as connect to their data from other sources like Snowflake, BigQuery, Google Sheets, and Microsoft Excel. 

The data solution can also be used in coordination with D3js, Observable Plot, and other building blocks. It also allows users to embed their insight in other web environments such as React apps. 

The Observable community consists of more than five million users who have produced the largest library of data visualization to explore and gain additional insight. 

Matt Murphy, a partner at Menlo Ventures, said, “the most promising enterprise tools are those that enable organizations to share and collaborate with information more freely.” Murphy’s company decided to provide business funding for Observable as it is tackling the huge market need for enterprise-ready software that breaks organizational silos.”

Observable was started by Mike Bostock, creator of D3.js, and Melody Meckfessel, former VP of Engineering at Google. Today, the data platform is used at over 150 companies and organizations, which include MIT, The Washington Post, Stitch Fix, Trase, and others.

Summary

Data collaboration startup Observable secured $35.6 million in a Series B business funding round led by Menlo Ventures, joined by existing investors Sequoia Capital and Acrew Capital. The Series B has pushed Observable’s total business funding raised to $46.1 million.

About the Author

Adriaan Brits

An analyst of global affairs, Adriaan has an MSC from Oxford, with diverse interests in the digital economy, entertainment, and business. He is a specialist trainer in advanced analytics and media.