SALT LAKE CITY — Databento, the market data platform for modern finance, announced a $100 million Series C financing at a $1.1 billion valuation. The round was led by Fifth Down Capital, an early investor in Databento, with participation from nearly all of the company’s existing investors, including NEA, DRW Venture Capital, Tribe Capital, and Hedosophia.
The announcement follows Databento’s $97 million Series B earlier this year. Since closing its previous round, the company has more than doubled its revenue while remaining profitable.
Databento serves leading quantitative trading firms, brokerages, asset managers, commodities firms, and digital asset companies. The company has also established a strong presence in artificial intelligence, having signed enterprise contracts with five of the six leading frontier AI labs.
Databento had 39 employees when it closed its Series C, reaching a $1.1 billion valuation with a fraction of the headcount of traditional market data providers.
“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,” said Christina Qi, co-founder and CEO of Databento. “Until now, reaching this milestone required hundreds of employees given the sheer scale of physical infrastructure involved. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished, and we’ll continue to prioritize exceptional talent as we grow.”
“Fifth Down first invested in Databento pre-revenue, as we recognized early on that the company had an opportunity to challenge the established model for delivering financial market data,” said Andrew Spellman, founder and CEO of Fifth Down Capital. “Our 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. Databento’s performance has reinforced our original thesis and strengthened our conviction in the company. We are thankful to Christina and Luca for the opportunity to increase our investment and involvement by leading the Series C financing.”
The round also included a strategic investment from Fitch Ventures, bringing the perspective of a leading financial information provider with deep expertise in credit ratings, financial data, and market insights.
“Financial data is becoming increasingly API-driven and machine-consumed, creating an opportunity to fundamentally rethink how institutions and other market participants access it,” said Gabby Munoz, Global Head of M&A and Venture Investments at Fitch Group. “Databento has built differentiated infrastructure at the source and paired it with a modern, self-service model that makes institutional-grade market data available on demand. We’re excited to back the team as they scale a platform we believe will help shape how market data is captured, delivered, and consumed.”
The new funding will support Databento’s continued investment in its market data infrastructure and expansion into additional asset classes.
About Databento
Databento is the market data platform for modern finance. The company provides real-time and historical data across futures, options, equities, and indices through a unified API. By owning the entire stack from source to delivery, Databento is the first platform of its kind to combine the performance and reliability demanded by the world’s leading trading firms with a dramatically simpler developer experience. To learn more about Databento, visit databento.com.
About Fifth Down Capital
Founded in 2014, Fifth Down Capital is a network-based investment firm that invests in private companies and funds. Fifth Down currently manages over 70 investment vehicles and has a full-time team of 30 professionals. For more information, visit fifthdown.com.
