Data discovery software provider Waterline Data Inc. is setting its sights on “global expansion” after raising $14.5 million in a new round of funding today.

The Series C round, led by Menlo Ventures, with participation from Jackson Square Ventures, Partech Ventures and Infosys Ltd., brings the company’s total capital raised to $37.5 million.

Waterline Data sells an automated data discovery platform that works by crawling through customer’s data assets stored in a data lake or data warehouse. The software creates what Waterline calls “data fingerprints” on a field-by-field basis, and automatically tags the data accordingly, eliminating the need for this to be done manually. This makes it easier for organizations to discover the data they need and provides a basis for creating machine learning models that can be refined over time as they interact with their data.

The main idea is to make it so organizations can interact with data in terms and semantics that are meaningful to them. The platform works with both structured and semi-structured data and comes with catalog and governance tools that enable users to easily find the data they need and pull it into a data visualization or business intelligence tool. In addition, the fingerprinting approach means that organizations can continually update metadata and improve data tagging without needing to crawl through it again and again.

Waterline Data might not be a household name, but the company’s platform has found plenty of takers with large enterprises such as Nordea Bank Danmark A/S, GlaxoSmithKline plc and the Federal National Mortgage Association or Fannie Mae counted among its customers.

Alongside the funding, Waterline said it’s appointing former Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. executive Robert Youngjohns to its board of directors.

“I am looking forward to working closely with the company to capitalize on all opportunities for growth as it builds on its commitment to help customers transform their mountains of data into real business value,” Youngjohns, who is also a senior adviser at McKinsey & Co. and an operating partner at HgCapital, said in a statement.

Image: Waterline Data