Palantir, Already Valued At $15 Billion, Is Looking For More
This would be on top of the round it raised at the end of 2014 that reportedly valued the company at $15 billion.
Palantir, a notoriously tight-lipped company, didn't talk about that round. But a form filed with the SEC indicated that the company raised $50 million in November. The 11-year-old company raised a total of $500 million last year, sources told the WSJ, and has raised about $1 billion all told, from investors such as the CIA's venture fund, In-Q-Tel, Thiel's Founders Fund as well as hedge fund Tiger Global Management.
Palantir sells software to government agencies and financial services firms that helps them analyze all sorts of data like text, videos, bank records, phone numbers, and so on. It's especially popular way to help identify fraud, cyber threats and criminal behavior.
When Palantir hit a $15 billion valuation, it became the third most valuable venture-backed firm after Xiaomi ($46 billion) and Uber ($41.2 billion), according the WSJ.
And, with the money it raised in 2014, Palantir made a couple of acquisitions like an app-making startup called Propeller a company also backed by one of Thiel's investment funds. It also bought a tiny social media analysis company called Poptip. That was unusual for the company. Prior to those buys, it had only acquired one other company, Voicegem in 2013.
With this much investment, people will be wondering afresh about if and when Palantir is headed for an IPO. It's CEO Alex Karp told CNBC in March that the company has "no plans to go public anytime soon."
We reached out to Palantir to comment and will update when we hear back.