Databento Raises $97M to Challenge Bloomberg’s Terminal
Databento, the market data startup built by ex-quants, has raised $97M in Series B funding to take on Bloomberg’s terminal. Its founder, who previously ran a hedge fund, identified the data plumbing as the tougher problem.
July 9, 2026 – 1:31 pm
(Image by: Databento)
Databento has secured $97M in Series B funding to build what it calls the market data platform for modern finance. The round was led by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), with DRW, Redpoint Ventures, and Tribe Capital joining. According to the company, the raise exceeded expectations, drawing over $300M in interest and bringing Databento’s disclosed funding to approximately $127M three years after launch.
From Hedge Fund to Data Plumbing
Chief executive Christina Qi, who co-founded a high-frequency trading fund (Domeyard) that traded billions daily, discovered that the bottleneck was often not the strategy but the market data itself and the operational challenges of using it in production.
Databento was created to address these issues. Its API allows engineers to access clean price data directly, eliminating the need to wrangle raw exchange feeds. The company supports more than 70 exchanges and serves over 3,000 firms worldwide.
Aiming at the Terminal
Databento aims to disrupt the market dominated by legacy providers like Bloomberg’s terminal, which costs between $20,000 to $27,000 per seat annually. Global spending on market data reached $50bn in 2025, according to Databento.
Qi predicts a shift in industry habits: “Programmatic access to market data is becoming the industry default.” She expects that within three years, more finance professionals will be familiar with using Databento APIs than traditional terminals.
Customers and Partners
Databento’s customer base includes hedge funds, proprietary trading shops, broker-dealers, fintech companies, AI frontier labs, and Nvidia (both a customer and technology partner). The company boasts a 97% enterprise retention rate since its inception and achieved profitability ahead of schedule.
Funding Details and Future Plans
Databento raised the funds from a strong position, with revenue growing 6.65 times year over year and retaining its enterprise base. It plans to expand into new asset classes and regions, establishing a global presence with over 20 data centers worldwide within six months. The company has secured more than 100 petabytes of usable storage, doubling its footprint.
NEA’s Rick Yang joins Databento’s board as part of the funding round, with colleague Danielle Lay serving as an observer. Other backers include Alumni Ventures and Cross Creek Capital.