Hacking Team
CIA-backed Palantir valued at $9bn
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CIA-backed Palantir valued at $9bn
| Email-ID | 70433 |
|---|---|
| Date | 2013-12-06 05:50:40 UTC |
| From | d.vincenzetti@hackingteam.com |
| To | marketing@hackingteam.it |
From today’s FT, FYI,David
December 5, 2013 7:14 pm
CIA-backed Palantir valued at $9bnBy Hannah Kuchler in San Francisco
Palantir Technologies, a big data company which works for the US intelligence services, has been valued at about $9bn, after keen investor interest in the software maker that was first funded by the CIA.
The Silicon Valley-based company’s valuation has soared more than 50 per cent since September, according to one person familiar with the matter. It is set to announce a $58m fundraising from anonymous backers, which the person said would probably increase to $100m.
Palantir’s initial funding came from In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s not-for-profit venture capital firm, and it has received several rounds of funding from the Founder’s Fund, a venture capital fund run by former PayPal chief executive and Facebook backer Peter Thiel. Other venture capital investors include Glenn Capital Management and Ulu Ventures.
The company raised almost $200m in a fundraising round less than three months ago, and then also would not disclose the identity of the investors. Founded by PayPal alumni and Stanford computer scientists in 2004, the company has raised almost $800m in total.
The CIA and the FBI use the Palantir platform to seek patterns in large amounts of disparate data which can be used to help guide their actions, for example, in the tracking of terror suspects, drug trafficking or cyber crime.
But Palantir’s work for the private sector is the fastest growing part of the business, and now makes up more than 60 per cent. It offers companies anti-fraud services, warnings about insider trading threats and programmes which promise to help accelerate the research and development process in the pharmaceuticals industry.
Palantir has denied that its Prism product, which it licenses to banks and hedge funds for quantitative research, is the same as the US government programme of the same name that was exposed in the leaks by Edward Snowden, the former CIA contractor, of sensitive material from the National Security Agency earlier this year.
The company is led by co-founder Alex Karp, who has stressed the importance of privacy, despite criticism from campaigners, and it is reported to have an internal ethics hotline to encourage its engineers to report any unethical use of programmes by clients.
The company was founded by Mr Thiel, Mr Karp, Joe Lonsdale, Stephen Cohen and Nathan Gettings, with a name that is derived from the “seeing stones” in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Valuations have been rapidly rising in Silicon Valley. Snapchat, a messaging application, recently rejected a $3bn bid from Facebook which would have valued it at 275 per cent more than the price struck in its last fundraising round in June. Pinterest, the online scrapbooking site, raised money at a $3.8bn valuation, or more than 50 per cent higher than a fundraising earlier this year.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013.
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David Vincenzetti
CEO
Hacking Team
Milan Singapore Washington DC
www.hackingteam.com
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