Acryl Data
5 known investors
Acryl Data develops DataHub Cloud, an enterprise context platform built on the open-source DataHub project that unifies metadata, data lineage, quality checks, and governance so AI agents and data teams can access reliable context. It serves enterprise data teams and provides MCP-native integrations with tools like Cortex, Genie, Cursor, Claude, and LangChain.
Also known as Acryl Β· DataHub Β· DataHub, by Acryl Data
Founders & leadership
Investors Β· 5
Also in the syndicate Β· 2
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Acryl Data is the company behind DataHub, an open source metadata platform originally created at LinkedIn. Its commercial product, DataHub Cloud, is a fully managed enterprise SaaS offering that layers discovery, observability, data quality monitoring, lineage, and governance on top of the open source core. The platform positions itself as a "context management platform" organized into a context store (metadata, knowledge, embeddings, memory), a context layer (lineage, impact analysis, metrics, data contracts, data quality, access and policy) and a context activation tier exposed through MCP, APIs/SDKs and a conversational "Ask DataHub" interface, so that both human data teams and AI agents can query governed definitions and lineage.
The platform ingests structured signals (usage, schemas, freshness), unstructured material (SOPs, runbooks, code), business application state and semantic models such as ontologies. Features include automatically derived intent, joins and definitions from query logs and usage; freshness, volume and column-level checks surfaced at query time; and workflows in which agents propose metric definitions or business context that human experts review and approve. Earlier product descriptions covered a developer-friendly data catalog, an observability module named Observe for real-time data quality monitoring, and configurable metadata tests that flag expensive or underused data assets.
In May 2025, alongside a $35 million Series B, the company announced it was rebranding to operate simply as DataHub, describing itself as "DataHub, by Acryl Data."
Founding story
Acryl Data was founded by Shirshanka Das and Swaroop Jagadish. Das was lead architect for the Big Data team at LinkedIn, where he founded the open source projects DataHub and Apache Gobblin, and previously worked at PayPal and Yahoo!. Jagadish was head of Data and Search Infrastructure at Airbnb, where his team built the Dataportal data discovery tool, and had also worked at LinkedIn and Yahoo!. The founders' shared thesis was that the fragmentation of the modern data stack left discovery, quality and management unsolved, and that a common streaming metadata substrate could unify tools across the ecosystem. At founding, Das was CEO and Jagadish CTO; by 2023 Jagadish was described as CEO, and in the 2025 Series B announcement Jagadish is CEO and co-founder and Das is CTO and co-founder.
Business model
Open core: the DataHub metadata platform is developed as an open source project used by more than 3,000 organizations, while the company monetizes DataHub Cloud, a fully managed enterprise SaaS offering with AI-powered discovery, observability and governance capabilities. Deployment options span single-node, cloud-hosted, hybrid and decentralized configurations.
Revenue comes from the enterprise managed service DataHub Cloud, sold to enterprise data organizations; the company reported 6x growth in selling this managed service over the two years preceding May 2025.
Traction
More than 3,000 organizations use the open source platform, and the community reached 13,000+ members by May 2025 (reported as 50x growth) and 15,000+ members per the company site. DataHub Cloud sales grew 6x over the two years to May 2025. Published deployments include Pinterest, where DataHub context powers an analytics agent covering 400,000 previously ungoverned tables and became the company's most-used internal agent; Netflix, which built a unified global catalog for data, ML and software entities; Optum, which built a decentralized 'Data Forge' data mesh over petabyte-scale healthcare data; and Super Technologies, which deployed DataHub Cloud with 600+ custom SQL assertions across 800+ professionals and four markets.
Latest developments
The May 2025 Series B was accompanied by the rebrand to DataHub and a stated focus on AI governance and context management. The company subsequently announced support for the Model Context Protocol and released DataHub Cloud v0.3.17, adding native Microsoft Fabric connectors for cross-platform lineage, Ask DataHub Plugins for multi-tool context, and improved data quality monitoring. It also published survey research on the state of context management drawing on 250 IT and data leaders, and a customer story on Netflix's discovery and governance program.
βΈFull profile β market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
The company describes itself as leading a category of AI and data context management, extending beyond traditional data cataloging. Its open source project is used by more than 3,000 organizations including Apple, Chime, Foursquare, Netflix, Optum, Pinterest and Slack, with a community reported at 13,000+ members in 2025 and 15,000+ on the company site. The company cites competitive wins against established vendors, attributing them to event-driven real-time architecture, unified discovery and observability, and AI governance support.
Management points to event-driven metadata processing, which performs operations only when triggered and thereby lowers catalog maintenance cost while enabling trigger-based workflows; a schema-first, event-oriented architecture built for scale and extensibility; a full spectrum of deployment options; the combination of discovery and data observability in one product; and MCP-native connectivity so multiple AI agents draw on the same governed context.
Technology
The platform uses an event-driven, schema-first architecture with a streaming metadata backbone powered by Apache Kafka, so operations run when metadata changes are triggered rather than on periodic scans, enabling real-time visibility and automated policy-based actions. It is API-first and designed for extensibility and scale, and supports MCP-native integration with agent tooling including Cortex, Genie, Cursor, Claude, LangChain, Agent Development Kit and Crew AI. Capabilities include lineage from pipeline to prompt, impact and blast-radius analysis for sensitive data, data contracts, custom SQL assertions, and automated derivation of documentation from query logs, lineage and usage.
Go-to-market
Open source adoption of the DataHub project acts as the top of funnel for conversion to the paid DataHub Cloud managed service; the company also uses demo requests, published customer stories, analyst briefs and product-update announcements. Series B proceeds were earmarked for investing in the open source community, R&D on AI governance and context management, scaling go-to-market operations, and enterprise customer success.
Enterprise data teams, including data consumers seeking datasets, data engineers assessing the impact of changes, governance teams tracking sensitive data access, and teams building AI and analytics agents. Named customers and users include Netflix, Pinterest, Optum, Trustpilot, Super Technologies, Notion, Zendesk, Robinhood, OVO Energy, BetterUp, Riskified, Saxo Bank, Expedia, Stripe and Peloton.
Geography
Headquartered in Mountain View, California at founding; the Series B press release was issued from Palo Alto, California. The open source community and customer base are described as global.
History
The company emerged from stealth in June 2021 with $9 million in seed funding led by 8VC, with LinkedIn and Insight Partners participating, and with its platform and SaaS data catalog in private beta. It commercialized LinkedIn's DataHub project and committed to continuing to develop the open source project in collaboration with LinkedIn and the community. In June 2023 it raised a $21 million Series A led by 8VC, bringing total funding to $30 million, and had a 25-person workforce. In May 2025 it raised a $35 million Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners, taking total funding to $65 million, added Bessemer partner Lauri Moore to its board, and rebranded to DataHub.
Risks & controversies
The data catalog market is crowded, with competitors including Castor, Stemma, Select Star and Alation; management has also said its most common competitor is the status quo of in-house custom development by data engineering teams. The company has declined to disclose detail about the size and composition of its customer base.
Compiled by commissioned research from 7 cited public sources β announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed β not independently audited.
Timeline Β· 8
launches, deals, and filingsRelease adds native Microsoft Fabric connectors for cross-platform lineage, Ask DataHub Plugins for multi-tool context, and data quality monitoring improvements.
Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners, bringing total funding to $65 million; Lauri Moore of Bessemer joined the board of directors.
$35M source β
As part of the Series B investment, Bessemer partner Lauri Moore joined DataHub's board of directors.
Alongside the Series B, the company announced it is rebranding to be known simply as DataHub, aligning the corporate name with its open source metadata platform.
Series A led by 8VC with participation from Sherpalo Ventures and Vercel founder Guillermo Rauch, bringing total raised to $30 million.
$21M source β
Acryl offers an observability module, Observe, for real-time data quality monitoring, plus configurable metadata tests that surface cost optimization opportunities.
Acryl Data came out of stealth with a metadata platform and data catalog in private beta, announcing $9 million in seed funding led by 8VC with participation from LinkedIn and Insight Partners.
$9M source β
Acryl Data introduced a cloud-native, stream-based metadata platform extending open source DataHub, with an enterprise SaaS data catalog product in private beta.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
βΈResearch sources Β· 7
primary sources listed
- Acryl Dataacryldata.io Β· web
7 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Acryl Data do?
- Acryl Data, now branded DataHub, sells a managed metadata and AI/data context platform built on the open source DataHub project.
- Who founded Acryl Data?
- Acryl Data was founded by Shirshanka Das.
- Who are Acryl Data's investors?
- Acryl Data's investors include Abstract Ventures, Mantis Capital, Sherpalo Ventures.