Secretive Startup Palantir Is Now Worth ~$8 Billion, According To Cofounder
That's because consumers aren't Palantir's customers; it's a data analytics platform focusing mainly on the government and financial sectors.
Palantir investors include Peter Thiel's The Founders Fund, Youniversity Ventures, Glynn Capital Management, Ulu Ventures, Jeremy Stoppelman, and Ben Ling.
You can get a sense of the kinds of things Palantir does from its blog, where posts have titles like these:
- Palantir Cyber: Uncovering malicious behavior at petabyte scale
- Adaptive Management and the Analysis of California’s Water Resources
- Securely collaborating across the enterprise and with external partners to expose cyber fraud
In the fall, we did a little digging to come up with an informed estimate of Palantir's valuation: $3.5 billion. We based this on an informed estimate of Palantir's 2012 revenues – somewhere between $350 and $400 million this year from its subscription product.
Now, Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale is suggesting we were way too low.
In a response to a question on Quora, he says that Palantir stock is currently trading at a valuation closer to $5 billion, and that third parties are seeking to invest in the company at the $8 billion range.
Read Quote of Joe Lonsdale's answer to Palantir Technologies: What is the current valuation of Palantir Technologies? on Quora