Collibra’s $250 Million Funding Round Puts Cloud Governance in Spotlight

Managing all the data generated in the cloud remains one of organizations’ biggest challenges. Indeed, cloud governance – the specific ways in which each firm oversees security and risk – stands out as a critical topic, one that arguably ought to be higher in most channel partners’ minds. Yet, as attendees at last week’s Channel Partners Conference & Expo said multiple times, so many vendors have come onto the cloud scene that deciding among them has turned into an overwhelming task.

The challenge will continue. When it comes to cloud governance in particular, partners have yet another relative-unknown to vet. On Tuesday, London-based Collibra said it has raised another round of funding that brings its valuation to $5.25 billion — double the amount from last year. This puts Collibra on par with semi-competitors including Snowflake, Informatica and Microsoft. (Collibra also considers Snowflake and Microsoft among its top technology partners.) In other words, the race to determine cloud governance supremacy is heating up.

Founded in 2008, Collibra teams with a number of big channel names for cloud data management across multiple countries. (Geographic sprawl presents its own problems, namely regarding regulatory compliance for privacy and security — no easy task.) Accenture and Deloitte rank as gold partners. In addition, Capgemini, Cognizant, Infosys, PwC, and others have earned silver status. Collibra divides its partner program into two pieces: services and technology.

Collibra also has made a name for itself among Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud users.

For now, that Collibra has raised another $250 million underscores the irrepressible traction within the cloud governance sector.

Sequoia’s Aneesh Venkat

“With the growth of the datasphere expected to reach 181 zettabytes in 2025, the opportunity lies in how organizations can manage both the data sprawl and complexity,” said Aneesh Venkat, partner at Sequoia Capital Global Equities, one of Collibra’s lead investors. “Collibra’s approach to delivering data intelligence will be the game-changer as organizations become more agile in their strategies and business operations.”

How Collibra Plans to Use Its $250 Million

Achieving that goal will require work. Collibra says it will use the additional capital to continue developing its platform, which it calls Data Intelligence Cloud; to keep adding to – and expanding existing relationships within – its technology partner roster; and to hire more people. Collibra says it will double its global employee count by 2023; right now, LinkedIn shows Collibra as having 953 staff. The cloud governance vendor plans to beef up divisions including engineering, sales, product and customer success.

Collibra secured its new funding from lead investors Sequoia Capital Global Equities and Sofina, as well as new investor Tiger Global Management and existing investors Battery Ventures, CapitalG, Dawn Capital, Durable Capital Partners LP, ICONIQ Capital and Index Ventures.

Over the last year, Collibra says it has experienced fast growth and taken on a record number of customers in financial services, government, manufacturing and health care throughout the world.

Collibra’s Felix Van de Maele

“We are seeing overwhelming demand for our platform, and the interest from the investor community further validates our approach to helping our customers drive value from their own data,” said Felix Van de Maele, founder and CEO of Collibra. “We are the only company in the industry that provides a single, fully integrated cloud-native platform to enable customers to accelerate their digital transformation journey.”

Collibra’s funding success reflects the global trend of soaring cloud adoption. Forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations have implemented more cloud technologies into their operations, as channel partners well know. Now the challenge lies in wrangling all the data tied up in various public and private cloud environments, and using it to make strategic business decisions.

At the same time, end users must protect sensitive information. That’s a tough mandate to meet with cyber criminals targeting cloud deployments. Furthermore, contrary to popular misconception, cloud providers cannot deliver impenetrable environments. Channel partners have to build in protections and safeguards on top of what cloud vendors offer. Cloud governance companies including Collibra take on some of this responsibility, too.