ThoughtSpot Inc., a major provider of business intelligence software, today announced that it’s acquiring rival Mode Analytics Inc. for $200 million.

The cash and equity deal is likely a win for Mode Analytics investors. Prior to the acquisition, San Francisco-based Mode raised $83 million in funding, or less than half what ThoughtSpot is paying to buy the startup.

Mountain View, California-based ThoughtSpot provides a platform that companies use to turn their business data into graphs for easier analysis. According to the company, its platform can ingest billions of rows of data. Users can visualize information from cloud databases, software-as-a-service services and a variety of other sources.

Mode likewise provides a platform for visualizing business information. However, its platform’s feature set includes a number of tools not yet offered by ThoughtSpot.

ThoughtSpot and Mode both designed their platforms to be usable for business users without programming expertise. At the same time, they offer features for technical teams that have more advanced requirements. ThoughtSpot provides a so-called data workspace tool that enables engineers to write SQL queries, as well as run analyses using the Python and R programming languages.

Mode offers similar features. One key selling point of its platform is that it allows users to write a snippet of Python, R or SQL code to analyze data and then view the results in the same interface without switching tabs. According to ThoughtSpot, Mode’s technology will help enhance its existing Python, R and SQL capabilities.

Mode’s code-based analytics features lend themselves to, among other tasks, organizing raw business information into structured datasets that can be processed more easily. Following the deal, datasets created with Mode will automatically be made available through ThoughtSpot’s natural language search tool. That means users will gain the ability to find data points of interest using plain English questions.

“With this acquisition, we’re giving both data teams and business users the tools they need to efficiently and quickly turn data into insights and those insights into actions,” said ThoughtSpot Chief Executive Officer Sudheesh Nair.

ThoughtSpot expects the deal to enhance its platform in other areas as well. According to the company, its platform’s spreadsheet-based data analytics features will improve. ThoughtSpot also plans to upgrade its AI-based data visualization tool. 

The company claims that its SaaS business’ annual recurring revenue doubled in the year leading up to today’s acquisition. ThoughtSpot expects the acquisition of Mode to push its annual recurring revenue above the $150 million mark. 

ThoughtSpot also detailed that the deal will double its customer base. It has “very little customer overlap” with Mode, it disclosed today, which may translate into new upselling opportunities. ThoughtSpot could sell its platform to Mode’s customers and vice versa.

The companies expect to close the deal later this year. 

Image: ThoughtSpot