Platfora

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Platfora is a big data analytics company based in San Mateo, California. Its software works with Apache Hadoop to help users analyze, visualize, and share large data sets quickly. The company was founded on June 1, 2011 by Ben Werther, who studied computer science at Stanford and previously worked at There Inc., Siebel Systems, Microsoft, and Greenplum. Werther teamed up with John Eshleman and Sri Satish Ambati—Eshleman became Platfora’s founding vice president of technology, while Ambati started his own company, Oxdata (later renamed H2O.ai).

In 2012 Platfora bought Plot.io to add browser-based data visualization capabilities. The company raised money from top investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Sutter Hill Ventures, Tenaya Capital, Citi Ventures, Cisco, and In-Q-Tel. Its Series C funding was $38 million, and by April 2014 total funding reached about $65 million. Platfora positions itself as a faster alternative to traditional data analysis and visualization tools used by big enterprises, competing with firms like SAP, IBM, SAS, and Oracle.

Leadership changed in 2015, with Jason Zintak named CEO on August 6 and Ben Werther becoming executive chairman. In December 2015 Platfora announced a $30 million investment led by HSBC and Harmony Partners, alongside existing backers. In July 2016, Platfora was acquired by Workday, Inc., which expected the deal to close in Workday’s third fiscal quarter of 2016.

What the product does: Platfora’s software runs queries against Hadoop-based data and returns real-time results through a graphical user interface. Analysts can filter data, drag and drop fields to create graphs and overlays, and share their visualizations and insights with others. The company has received media attention for making big data more accessible—Bloomberg Businessweek called it “Big Data for Dummies.” Platfora’s technology has been used for practical analytics, such as analyzing crime data at events in Kansas City. Gartner highlighted Platfora in 2015, and CRN Magazine mentioned the company in 2013.