UK founded business intelligence platform Lightdash raises $8.4m in a round led by Accel

UK founded Lightdash, the company which makes business intelligence accessible by getting along well with all your data tools, has closed a seed round to the tune of $8.4m just as it releases its beta to the public.

Funds will be used for said beta release, Lightdash Cloud, as well as for hiring and the development of new features on the platform. 

Accel led the funding round which includes angel investment from Guy Podjarny, founder of cyber security firm Snyk, Ashley Kramer, CMO of GitLab, dbt founder Tristan Handy and former Qlik CEO Lars Bjork. Early stage funders Y Combinator and Moonfire complete the line-up.

The open source Lightdash platform integrates with data tools such as dbt, Snowflake, Airbyte and Fivetran, making business integration simpler giving you a clearer read on your data. 

CEO Hamzah Chaudhary, who co-founded Lightdash with CTO Oliver Laslett in 2021, said that data-driven decision making is central to the success of any modern business. 

“Yet while every company has data, metrics and KPIs, they aren’t always measured or understood in the same way across a business,” he said. “Without this, companies can find their teams adrift when it comes to working towards a shared strategic objective. Everyone from the graduate analyst to the CEO needs to have the shared same context. That’s what we mean by the ‘Lightdash Way’ - we want to empower all business stakeholders to answer their own data questions by making business intelligence accessible, actionable and consistent. We are incredibly excited to partner with Accel and bring our vision for true data self-serve to companies across the world.

Andrei Brasoveanu, Partner at Accel, added, “Despite being on the forefront of how we formulate business strategies, existing BI tools are increasingly unfit for purpose as the data stack evolves, failing to meet the needs of both the modern data analyst and data consumer. We love how Lightdash’s forward-thinking BI platform puts native integrations, open-source, and efficiency front-and-center. We’re impressed by the early organic traction that Hamzah, Oliver, and the team have achieved so far and we believe that Lightdash has the potential to radically reshape the BI market in the years to come.”

Lightdash Cloud beta access can be found here.