CData Software Inc., a seven-year-old firm that specializes in connecting data from multiple sources, today announced a new $140 million funding round.

The Series B round brings its total funding to $160 million, all from a single investor, Updata Management LLC.

Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based CData addresses a problem that is growing as businesses seek to combine data from multiple sources for analysis and business intelligence. It sells connectors to more than 200 data sources ranging from relational databases to popular cloud applications that can be mixed and matched for analytics or to build new applications.

The funding will help it bring a full-fledged cloud platform to market that enterprises can purchase or license as a subscription, said Amit Sharma (pictured), the company’s co-founder and chief executive.

Up to this point, CData has primarily courted developers who largely made one-off connector purchases, amassing a base of more than 10,000 customers in the process. Developers turned out to be a sweet spot in the market that helped the firm get its footing, but now it wants to expand its reach. “Part of the reason we raised this capital is to tell the story to an audience that is less technical,” Sharma said.

CData connectors use SQL as a universal language for both retrieving and writing data. Its software translates SQL commands into the native syntax of the target platform, enabling data from multiple applications, databases and clouds to be merged into popular analysis and reporting programs like SAP SE’s Analytics Cloud, Tableau Software Inc.’s data visualization software and spreadsheets such as Google Sheets.

“What our customers see is a library that acts exactly like a relational database would act,” Sharma said.

CData performs some data integration but does not position itself as an integration platform. In fact, data integration giant Informatica Corp. and cloud integration startup Matillion Ltd. are both customers, Sharma said. “All these large organizations are challenged by connecting to all the sources that are out there,” he said.

All of CData’s funding to date has come from Updata Management, which does business as Updata Partners. “CData is already the leader in data connectivity and has a tremendous opportunity to build on that foundation,” Updata General Partner Carter Griffin said in a statement.

Sharma said that the latest round can sustain the company almost indefinitely. “We have been profitable for a while and are significantly cash flow-positive,” he said. “This funding can last us as long as we need it to last.”

Photo: CData