Big data just attracted more dollar signs. The latest is a $100 million fund from Accel Partners, dubbed Big Data Fund 2, which follows up on its first fund focused on big data that raised $100 million back in November of 2011.
Though the second fund’s name sounds like a movie sequel to the first, Accel’s latest fund will have a markedly different focus, mainly on the user experience involved in making sense of the tremendous amount of big data being generated. The new fund will specialize in data companies that improving the end user value through data driven software, mainly by providing businesses a viable method to make sense and use the data.
“We are seeing an accelerated rate of innovation in big data, with the newest generation of entrepreneurs re-imagining ways to extract the most value out of big data and fundamentally change the way we work and process information,” said Ping Li, Partner, Accel Partners.
Companies like IBM, Oracle and SAP have focused on gathering the vast amount of data that can measure a business. Analyzation and actually extracting value is the next step, what Jay Parikh, Facebook’s infrastructure engineering VP who sits on Accel’s Big Data Advisory Council, calls “the last mile of big data.”
“The last mile of big data will be built by a new class of software applications that enable everyday users to get real value out of all the data being created,” Parikh said. “Today’s entrepreneurs are now able to innovate on top of a technology stack that has grown increasingly powerful in the last few years – enabling product and analytical experiences that are more personalized and more valuable than ever.”
The fund has already made an investment in RelateIQ, a work collaboration project recently rolled out of stealth mode that pulls massive amounts of data from email, calendars, mobile phones, etc. to create a collaboration experience that updates in realtime.
Previous big data bets from Accel include last year’s $4.3 million investment in Trifacta, and a $30 million investment into Sumo Logic.
Along with the fund, Accel announced the appointment of two executives, Anthony Deighton, the CTO of QlikView, and Shlomo Kramer, the CEO of data security startup Imperva and the co-founder of Check Point security company, to its Big Data Fund Advisory Council.
“The enterprise world has already embraced the concept of big data and is starting to leverage insights derived from data to solve security and other business problems in ways previously unthinkable,” said Shlomo Kramer, CEO Imperva. “As big data evolves it will be exciting to be at the forefront of innovation with the Accel team, working alongside entrepreneurs who are creating new software applications that put the power of big data into the hands of the work force.”