DataFox raises $5M to push its tool for tracking private companies

DataFox, a startup with a web service that companies can use to monitor privately held companies, today announced a $5 million round of new funding.

Also today, the startup is introducing DataFox for Teams, a new tier of service that adds features for team members to collaborate in the course of doing research. Analysts could previously work together in DataFox, but now they can do much more.

“This includes messaging, ability to set alerts on others’ lists, allocating deals to colleagues, setting follow-ups, etc. — that’s all new,” DataFox cofounder Bastiaan Janmaat told VentureBeat in an email. “Most importantly, a team can now sign up for DataFox, and immediately start using our data science and natural language processing to find new prospects, assign them to team members, and track progress. To do this, they just need to upload their list (csv) of past clients.”

Also new: a Conference Navigator to help people get a sense of how prospects will be involved with upcoming events.

DataFox mines the Internet for data to determine the health of private companies. Ordinarily, researching such companies can be difficult.

Goldman Sachs, Green Visor Capital, and Stanford StartX participated in the new round of funding in DataFox.

DataFox started in 2013 and is based in San Francisco. The startup has hundreds of customers, including Box, Looker, Mail.ru, and Scale Venture Partners. The startup has 15 employees now and should reach a headcount of 40 by the end of next year. In January DataFox rolled out an enterprise tier of service.

When it comes to picking up venture capital firms as customers, DataFox competes with the likes of CB Insights and Mattermark. Quid is increasingly posing competition to the startup, too.