Databento raises $97 million to expand market data platform
Christina Qi’s profitable 24-person startup plans a global data-center push after a Series B led by NEA.
By Sofia Marchetti · World Affairs Correspondent
3 min read
Databento has raised $97 million in Series B funding to expand its market data infrastructure business, Fortune reported. The round gives founder Christina Qi new capital to challenge entrenched financial data providers serving banks, hedge funds and other institutions.
NEA led the financing, with DRW Venture Capital, Redpoint Ventures and Tribe Capital also taking part, according to Fortune. Databento said demand for the round exceeded $300 million.
The company has now disclosed about $127 million in total funding, based on Databento’s own prior funding announcement and the new round reported by Fortune. Databento has not made its valuation public.
Qi previously built Domeyard LP, a high-frequency trading hedge fund. Business of Business reported that Domeyard traded as much as $7.1 billion a day before Qi closed it and started Databento.
Fortune reported that Qi now runs Databento from a farm in Utah. The company has 24 employees and is profitable, according to Fortune and Databento.
Qi told Fortune that Databento has used little of the new funding so far, even as investors have urged the company to spend more. She said the company is buying servers and other equipment while remaining profitable each month.
Databento sells financial data feeds to customers that include large financial institutions, hedge funds and AI companies. Fortune reported that the company’s product lets users buy specific data, such as Microsoft stock data, through an online checkout-style process and pay based on use.
The company is targeting a market where traditional financial data products can be costly. Vendr lists Bloomberg Terminal pricing at $20,000 to $27,000 per seat per year, and Fortune reported that LSEG’s Refinitiv is priced at comparable levels. Mondo Visione reported that global spending on financial market data reached $49.2 billion in 2025.
Databento’s expansion plan includes moving beyond servers located inside stock exchanges to more than 20 data centers worldwide, Fortune reported. The company has also secured more than 100 petabytes of additional storage, which Fortune said would more than double its prior capacity.
Fortune reported that Databento gathers and processes raw price data from more than 80 trading venues worldwide using specialized chips. The data includes buy and sell orders in real time, and Fortune described Databento as the only vendor offering that full view over a standard internet connection.
Qi told Fortune that 400 to 500 people sign up for Databento each day. Fortune reported that users range from UC Berkeley students building trading strategies to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Qi also told Fortune that large financial institutions and AI labs account for 90% of Databento’s revenue. She confirmed to Fortune that Nvidia is both a paying customer and a technology partner, and that OpenAI is also a customer.
Fortune compared Databento’s stage with other market data startups that sold to larger players. LSEG announced in 2022 that it would acquire MayStreet, and Bloomberg reported that BML was acquired around the Series B stage for about $250 million.
Qi told Fortune she intends to keep building Databento rather than sell early. She said the company’s ambition is to grow well beyond a billion-dollar business.
This story draws on original reporting from Fortune.