OpenDataSoft Raises $5.5M backed by Aster Capital, Salesforce Ventures, and Aurinvest

OpenDataSoft, a global data company offering publishing and sharing solutions for the private and public sector, recently announced a $5.5M Series A round of financing.

Funding comes from Aster Capital and Salesforce Ventures, with a follow-on investment from Aurinvest. The funding will primarily be used to expand OpenDataSoft’s operations globally, including continued expansion in France and Europe and acceleration of its North American business development.

OpenDataSoft has built a user-friendly, cloud-based data publishing and sharing platform to allow data to be easily visualized and reused by citizens, startups, or teams within city departments or organizations via APIs. OpenDataSoft’s platform offers more advanced features – such as real-time data processing – which are specifically relevant for Smart City and IoT projects.

OpenDataSoft is proud to be at the forefront of the global Data Revolution,” stated Jean-Marc Lazard, Co-Founder and CEO of OpenDataSoft. “Our platform, including our Open Data, Smart City, and even internal data exchange solutions, is used worldwide, seen in cities, governments, and private enterprises. Our philosophy is to work closely with our users, evolving the platform while also anticipating future trends in digital transformation. We believed it was the right time for us to seek additional funding in order to bring our platform to all four corners of the globe.”

The company plans to leverage the new funding to:

• Reinforce the research and development team in France, which currently represents half of the Paris office, OpenDataSoft’s global headquarters.
• Expand into new markets in Europe, including Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K while continuing to grow in existing markets, such as Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and beyond. This will follow the recruitment of regional business development specialists in these regions.
• Recruit sales and marketing teams in North America for both the public and private sectors following the opening of a North American headquarters in Boston.

Interview with Fabrice Taloni, Associate at Taloni & Associés:

Please tell me about your involvement in the deal?

We were appointed by Aster Capital, in the name of the pool of investors, to carry out accounting, financial, tax and social security due diligence procedures applied to OpenDataSoft. While our scope of work encompassed all the usual accounting, tax and social matters, a special emphasis was placed on reviewing the company’s business plan, with a strong focus on its future cash flows.

Why is this a good deal for all involved?

OpenDataSoft is a pure player in the field of big data and offers a user-friendly interface to publish and share a large volume of data. This solution overcomes the high technical barriers which usually restrict the ability of organizations to publish and use the data they wish to share. Potential applications are therefore countless. As such, the pool of investors may expect a high ROI on their investment, while the amount invested will enable the Company to fuel its future growth and reach its full potential. On a more immediate and practical point of view, both investors and counsels could count on premium information communicated quickly and efficiently by the sell side, management and counsel; this smoothed out the whole process.

What challenges arose? How did you navigate them?

As usual with a software editor, the way revenue recognition and associated cash flows is reflected in the business plan is always an issue. It was of paramount importance to ensure that the model accurately reflected the timing difference between cash flow and revenue, in order to confirm adequacy of the level of cash invested. Our experience in this field, collected in the context of similar deals, was clearly an asset in the limited time-frame we had to carry out our procedures.

On a fiscal aspect, reporting the risk (or lack thereof) associated with research tax credits was also instrumental in helping investors to propose an adequate level of guarantees and indemnities. Our firm specialises in providing accounting and tax services to technology companies. We therefore have a solid knowledge of the tax and social incentives offered to the tech sector in France.