Data.world

Data.world was founded in 2016 by Brett Hurt, Jon Loyels, Bryon Jacob, and Matt Laessig—all of whom had prior work relationships from Bazaarvoice and HomeAway.

Updated 29 Jun 2026 Reviewed by 7wData

Visit Website

Profile

A cloud-native data catalog platform that indexes enterprise data metadata, automates governance, and powers AI agents with context and accuracy through a knowledge graph architecture.

Data.world was founded in 2016 by Brett Hurt, Jon Loyels, Bryon Jacob, and Matt Laessig—all of whom had prior work relationships from Bazaarvoice and HomeAway. The company built a dual-mode platform: a free community for data professionals and open datasets, alongside an enterprise data catalog powered by a knowledge graph. By 2024, Data.world had achieved $45.2 million in annual recurring revenue (96.4% YoY growth from $23 million in 2023) and served 500 enterprise customers with 215 employees.

The company positioned itself as addressing "data hell"—the chaos of unorganized metadata and governance—by enabling AI-ready data discovery and governance through knowledge-graph infrastructure. On May 7, 2025, ServiceNow announced its acquisition of Data.world (financial terms undisclosed), valuing it at approximately $500 million. The deal marked ServiceNow's second major AI-related acquisition in 2025, following Moveworks.

Brett Hurt remained CEO through the acquisition, stating the integration would help customers "unlock the full potential of their data with more trust, context, and control." Data.world's core products—Discover (enterprise search), Govern (data governance automation), and Connect (data integration)—were expected to be folded into ServiceNow's Workflow Data Fabric to power AI agents and workflows. The company had raised $132.3 million across six funding rounds before the acquisition, with Series C ($50 million) in 2022 at a $350 million valuation.

Who buys this

Enterprise media and advertising firms managing data across 100+ subsidiaries (WPP case study)
Fortune 500 manufacturers and retailers deploying data governance at scale
Financial services firms requiring data lineage and compliance tracking
Healthcare and life sciences organizations managing regulated data estates

Publicly disclosed clients

WPP (NASDAQ: WPP) – 1,400 data catalog users across 152 countries and 500+ companies

Strengths and what to watch

Strengths

Knowledge-graph engine claimed to deliver 4.2x more accurate insights by mapping relationships and business context rather than treating data as isolated fields
Strong revenue growth—nearly doubled from $23M to $45.2M (2023–2024), hitting 500 customers with $90.4K average customer value, suggesting durable enterprise adoption
Integrated into ServiceNow's Workflow Data Fabric, providing instant distribution to ServiceNow's existing enterprise customer base and AI agent ecosystem

Watch for

Integration risk: Data.world's standalone product will be absorbed into ServiceNow's portfolio; customer retention and product independence post-acquisition remain unproven
Competitive pressure from entrenched data governance vendors (Collibra, Alation, Atlan) with deeper customer relationships and broader governance depth
Founder and executive team tenure post-acquisition: Brett Hurt, Matt Laessig, Bryon Jacob, and Jon Loyens' continued involvement in product strategy and customer success will signal integration health

Key Information

Industry: Data Governance & Catalog
Founded: 2016
Employees: 215
Country: United States

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Data.world?

Data.world is a cloud-native data catalog platform that indexes enterprise metadata, automates governance decisions, and enables AI agents through knowledge graph architecture. Founded in 2016, the company now serves 500 enterprise customers across media, financial services, healthcare, and manufacturing sectors.

How does Data.world's knowledge graph work?

Data.world's knowledge graph maps data relationships and business context rather than treating data as isolated fields. The company claims this approach delivers 4.2 times more accurate insights by enabling faster data discovery and better decision-making throughout enterprise operations and business workflows.

What is Data.world's revenue and growth?

Data.world achieved $45.2 million in annual recurring revenue during 2024, nearly doubling from $23 million in 2023 with 96.4% year-over-year growth. The platform serves 500 enterprise customers with $90,400 average customer value, backed by 215 employees managing customer success and product development.

Who are Data.world's customers?

Data.world serves enterprise media and advertising firms like WPP with 1,400 data catalog users across 152 countries, Fortune 500 manufacturers and retailers deploying governance at scale, financial services firms requiring data lineage and compliance tracking, and healthcare organizations managing regulated data estates.

Who founded Data.world?

Data.world was founded in 2016 by Brett Hurt, Jon Loyels, Bryon Jacob, and Matt Laessig—all with prior work experience from Bazaarvoice and HomeAway. Brett Hurt remains CEO. Matt Laessig is Chief Operating Officer, Bryon Jacob is Chief Technology Officer, and Jon Loyels is Chief Data and Strategy Officer.

Did ServiceNow acquire Data.world?

Yes. On May 7, 2025, ServiceNow announced its acquisition of Data.world for approximately $500 million. It was ServiceNow's second major AI-related acquisition in 2025, following Moveworks. Data.world's core products—Discover, Govern, and Connect—will integrate into ServiceNow's Workflow Data Fabric to power AI agents.

How Data.world compares

Direct head-to-head against 3 competitors. Picked by 7wData.

Positioning: A cloud-native data catalog platform that indexes enterprise data metadata, automates governance, and powers AI agents with context and accuracy through a knowledge graph architecture.
Customer segments: Enterprise media and advertising firms managing data across 100+ subsidiaries (WPP case study)
Strengths: Knowledge-graph engine claimed to deliver 4.2x more accurate insights by mapping relationships and business context rather than treating data as isolated fields
Watch for: Integration risk: Data.world's standalone product will be absorbed into ServiceNow's portfolio; customer retention and product independence post-acquisition remain unproven

Positioning: Incumbent enterprise governance suite for regulated industries needing policy stewardship, approval chains, lineage, and compliance artifacts at scale.
Customer segments: Large enterprises (5,000+ employees) in financial services, healthcare, insurance. Buyer: CDO leading formal governance programs.
Strengths: Stewardship workflow automation handles policy ownership, approval chains, lineage tracking, and data quality rules in one governance layer.
Watch for: Base licensing starts ~$170K/year. Total cost of ownership including implementation people-costs reaches $1M+ for mid-large deployments.
Recent moves: Acquired Raito (data access governance startup) June 2025, adding dynamic fine-grained access policies across Snowflake, Databricks, AWS, Azure, Google.

Positioning: Enterprise data intelligence platform shifting toward agentic metadata governance, compute-agnostic, serving 40% of the Fortune 100.
Customer segments: Large enterprises and Fortune 100 firms in finance, pharma, real estate. Buyer: CDO, data governance teams, data stewards.
Strengths: Behavioral intelligence tracks actual query patterns to surface data trust signals and popularity rankings across the catalog.
Watch for: Average implementation runs 5 months. ROI typically not realized until 21 months post-go-live, straining business case justification.
Recent moves: Named Leader in Forrester Wave: Data Governance Solutions Q3 2025, scoring highest on strategy among all evaluated vendors.

Positioning: Active metadata platform treating metadata as a queryable, actionable context layer for modern cloud-native data stacks.
Customer segments: Mid-market to large enterprise data engineering and analytics teams on Snowflake, Databricks, or dbt. Buyer: data platform lead, CDO.
Strengths: Native bidirectional connectors to dbt, Snowflake, and Databricks propagate lineage and enrichment automatically without custom integration code.
Watch for: Performance degrades at scale. Users report slowdowns beyond ~400 concurrent users. Complex multi-system integrations may require architectural input from Atlan.
Recent moves: Launched Open App Framework with 21 ecosystem partners August 2025, extending platform breadth beyond core catalog and governance features.

Sources

www.crunchbase.com — Company founding date (2016), founder names, total funding ($132.3M), and Series C funding details
getlatka.com — 2024 revenue ($45.2M ARR), YoY growth rate (96.4%), customer count (500), average customer value ($90.4K), employee count (215), and 2022 Series C valuation ($350M)
techcrunch.com — ServiceNow acquisition announcement date, deal context (second AI acquisition in 2025), and strategic rationale for agentic AI capabilities
data.world — Core product offerings (Discover, Govern, Connect), value proposition (AI-ready, knowledge graph, 4.2x accuracy claim), and positioning in the data governance market
data.world — WPP case study: 1,400 data catalog users, 152 countries, 500+ companies, use of knowledge-graph and generative AI for productivity
data.world — Current executive leadership: Brett Hurt (CEO), Matt Laessig (COO), Bryon Jacob (CTO), Jon Loyens (Chief Data & Strategy Officer), and C-suite team members