Databento, the market data platform for modern finance, has raised $100 million in Series C financing at a $1.1 billion valuation, the company announced November 12.
The round was led by Fifth Down Capital, an early Databento investor, with participation from nearly all existing investors, including NEA, DRW Venture Capital, Tribe Capital and Hedosophia. Fitch Ventures joined as a strategic investor. The raise follows a $97 million Series B earlier this year.
A 39-person team with five of six top AI labs as customers
Databento said its revenue has more than doubled since the Series B closed, and that it stayed profitable throughout. The company had 39 employees when the Series C closed, reaching a $1.1 billion valuation with a fraction of the headcount traditional market data vendors need.
The AI angle is direct: Databento said it has enterprise agreements with five of the six biggest frontier AI labs. The labs use its data to train and run models that need fast, reliable market information, and Databento delivers live and historical data for futures, options, equities and indices through a single API.
Co-founder and CEO Christina Qi framed the milestone as a sign of the times: “In this AI era, we’re seeing remarkably small teams build billion-dollar companies, but that level of efficiency is unprecedented in the market data industry.”
Who backed the round, and where the money goes
Fifth Down Capital first invested in Databento before the company had revenue. Its founder and CEO, Andrew Spellman, said the firm’s confidence “has only grown as Databento’s traction and execution have demonstrated it can serve demanding institutional customers, sustain rapid growth, and build a profitable business.”
The new funding will go toward deeper investment in Databento’s market data infrastructure and expansion into more asset classes. The company controls every layer of its stack, from the original data source through to final delivery, which it says pairs the speed and dependability top trading firms require with an easier experience for developers.
Why it matters
Market data has long been a slow, expensive corner of finance, dominated by incumbents with large sales forces and legacy feeds. Databento’s pitch is that a small, engineering-led team can serve the same demanding customers, including AI labs, with a developer-first API. A $1.1 billion valuation on 39 employees makes it one of the leanest unicorns in the sector, and the AI-lab customer base gives it a direct stake in the AI buildout. The open question is whether the company can keep growing revenue at this pace as it expands into new asset classes, but the investor list suggests its backers are willing to fund that test.
All growth and profitability figures in this article are company-reported, as disclosed in Databento’s own announcement.
