Opendatasoft raises $5.5M from North American and European Investors

Opendatasoft, a global data company offering publishing and sharing solutions for the private and public sector, today announced a $5.5M Series A round of financing. Funding comes from Aster Capital and Salesforce Ventures, with a follow-on investment from Aurinvest. The funding will primarily be used to expand Opendatasoft’s operations globally, including continued expansion in France and Europe and acceleration of its North American business development.

Opendatasoft has built a user-friendly, cloud-based data publishing and sharing platform to allow data to be easily visualized and reused by citizens, startups, or teams within city departments or organizations via APIs. Opendatasoft’s platform offers more advanced features – such as real-time data processing – which are specifically relevant for Smart City and IoT projects.

Opendatasoft is proud to be at the forefront of the global data revolution,” stated Jean-Marc Lazard, Co-Founder and CEO of OpenDataSoft, “Our platform, including our open data, smart city, and even internal data exchange solutions, is used worldwide, seen in cities, governments, and private enterprises. Our philosophy is to work closely with our users, evolving the platform while also anticipating future trends in digital transformation. We believed it was the right time for us to seek additional funding in order to bring our platform to all four corners of the globe.

Opendatasoft was founded five years ago in Paris, France and has since grown to serve over 80 customers in ten countries, including the Portuguese Ministry of Health, the Swiss National Railway Company, and communities in the Research Triangle, including the City and County of Durham (NC). In France, Opendatasoft counts the City of Paris, the Ministry of Education, and some of the largest French multinational corporations, such as Veolia and Saint-Gobain, among its customers.

The company plans to leverage the new funding to:

• Reinforce the research and development team in France, which currently represents half of the Paris office, Opendatasoft’s global headquarters.
• Expand into new markets in Europe, including Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K while continuing to grow in existing markets, such as Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and beyond. This will follow the recruitment of regional business development specialists in these regions.
• Recruit sales and marketing teams in North America for both the public and private sectors following the opening of a North American headquarters in Boston.

At Aster Capital, we think that managing and sharing information as well as organizing, transforming and accessing data will change the relationship between corporations and their clients, as well as the interaction between cities and their citizens,” said Says Fabio Lancellotti, Partner at Aster Capital, “More importantly, we believe that the way we plan, design and improve our cities as well as our daily life within cities will become increasingly a matter of good data management. As part of this revolution – which will gain in momentum over the next few years – we believe that Opendatasoft, a market leader for data publishing and management in Europe, will also gain this same recognition in the US and Asia in the near future. In four years, OpenDataSoft is already present in ten countries and works with some of the largest industrial groups, leading innovative cities and public administrations. We are excited to start working with them and look forward to see them shaping the future of data management on a global scale.

Founded in 2011, Opendatasoft has built the industry-leading turnkey SaaS data publishing and sharing platform designed for the easy transformation of data into services for both the public and private sectors alike. It is the only platform of its kind capable of processing data streams in real-time.
With headquarters in Boston, MA and Paris, France, OpenDataSoft powers data sharing portals for the City of Paris, the Portuguese Ministry of Health, the Swiss National Railway Company, and cities and towns in the Research Triangle in North Carolina.

Aster is a venture capital firm that is organized as a business hub – a new generation of growth accelerator for startups. Resolutely serving entrepreneurs that are looking to establish new industry models (particularly in the energy, smart industries and mobility sectors), the Aster Business Hub is a complete ecosystem of opportunities supporting growth companies in their development. By mobilising the support of industrial investors in its funds, coupled with a significant international presence (San Francisco, Beijing, Tel Aviv, Nairobi and Paris), Aster acts as a catalyst for venture rounds, market access and geographic expansion. Currently, Aster manages over 300 million dollars in funds raised from major global groups and institutions. For 16 years, Aster has invested in more than 50 startups, including Solairedirect (acquired by Engie in 2015) and ConnectBlue (acquired by u-blox in 2014).

Salesforce Ventures – Salesforce’s corporate investment group – invests in the next generation of enterprise technology to help companies connect with their customers in entirely new ways. Portfolio companies receive funding as well as access to the world’s largest cloud ecosystem and the guidance of Salesforce’s innovators and executives. With Salesforce Ventures, portfolio companies can also leverage Salesforce’s expertise in corporate philanthropy by joining Pledge 1% to make giving back part of their business model. Salesforce has invested in more than 150 enterprise cloud startups since 2009.

For more information, please visit www.salesforce.com/ventures.

Aurinvest is a venture capital fund founded in 2001. It is managed and funded by over fifty entrepreneurs and business leaders, alongside institutional investors. Aurinvest invests in high growth companies or ventures on the edge of an exciting journey. The fund accompanies founders in building successful companies. Aurinvest invests primarily in technology and life science companies.

For more information, please visit www.aurinvest.com.

Ader Finance is the premier independent advisory firm for French technology entrepreneurs. Ader handles fundraising and M&A for the most innovative startups. Our team has completed over 100 successful transactions in software, mobile, media, e-commerce, IT and telecoms.

For more information, please visit www.ader.co.