May 8 - Atlan said on Wednesday it had raised $105

million in a funding round led by Singapore's sovereign wealth

fund GIC and tech investor Meritech Capital that valued the

artificial intelligence startup at $750 million.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Top technology companies are racing to build AI into their

products and services. Startups catering to the surge in demand

for AI chips and learning have been a bright spot in an

otherwise subdued private funding market.

Data is the building block of the AI revolution which has

taken Wall Street by storm. Generative AI aims to make

human-like creations through computer code that has processed

vast amounts of data.

CONTEXT

Atlan, which has raised more than $206 million following the

latest series C round, operates an eponymous data stack that

brings together diverse data from internal and external sources

to one interface.

Its customers include software firm Autodesk ( ADSK ),

luxury retailer Ralph Lauren ( RL ), exchange operator Nasdaq

and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. ( NWSA )

In March 2022, it raised $50 million in a fundraise at a

valuation of $450 million led by Salesforce Ventures, Insight

Partners and Sequoia Capital India.

KEY QUOTES

"The legacy players in our space include Informatica,

Collibra, and Alation - and we win three quarters of the deals

when we compete head-to-head with them," Atlan Co-founder

Prukalpa Sankar told Reuters.

"Without the control plane Atlan has built, organizations

will continue to struggle with getting major business

initiatives like AI readiness and data democratization actually

up and running," said Rob Ward, co-founder, Meritech Capital.

BY THE NUMBERS

Atlan said its revenue has surged over seven-fold in the

last two years.

It also recorded a 400% growth in enterprise sales in the

first quarter.

WHAT'S NEXT

The company intends to use the new capital to expand product

development and its operations.

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