Hex
San Francisco, US · Founded 2019 · 18 known investors
Hex builds tools for data analysis and visualization, serving data teams, analysts, and organizations that need to work with data. The platform is used by AI labs, financial institutions, and other enterprises globally.
Also known as Hex Technologies Inc.
Founders & leadership
Hex was founded in 2019 by Barry McCardel, Caitlin Colgrove, and Glen Takahashi.
Investors · 18
Also in the syndicate · 2
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements$70M disclosed across 1 of 4 rounds · 2022–2025
- $70MSeries CMay 2025 · 2 sourcesSource ↗
Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Hex Technologies Inc. operates an analytics platform that combines SQL and Python notebooks, no-code charting, app/dashboard publishing and AI agents in a single collaborative workspace. Users can ask questions in plain language, explore data with AI-generated SQL and Python, and turn results into interactive apps, dashboards and reports. The company describes its current positioning as an "AI analytics platform" in which answers are grounded in trusted business context.
The platform is organized around several surfaces: agentic data notebooks, conversational self-serve querying, published data apps, and a Context Studio for inspecting the context, queries and steps behind an answer. Hex can also be used from outside its own interface — via MCP from tools such as Claude or ChatGPT, from the CLI with coding agents such as Claude Code or Codex, and from Slack — while retaining the same context, execution layer and governance. Context can be synced from semantic models, dbt code, warehouse metadata, markdown files and external applications, or authored directly in Hex; the system also flags context gaps and supports evals to measure answer quality over time.
Earlier descriptions characterize Hex as a collaborative data workspace for technical and non-technical users, built on real-time collaboration, data stack integrations, no-code charts and a reactive graph-based compute engine, following a "low floor, high ceiling" design philosophy intended to make code-based workflows accessible across the range of technical ability.
Founding story
Hex was founded by Barry McCardel (CEO), Caitlin Colgrove (CTO) and Glen Takahashi (Chief Architect), who met while working at Palantir. Sources differ on the founding year: Contrary Research states October 2019, while Fortune and The SaaS News state 2020. The founders had observed the rise of the modern data stack — cloud warehouses such as Snowflake and Databricks, plus transformation and ingestion tools such as dbt Labs and Fivetran — while repeatedly running into the difficulty of sharing and publishing data work: one-off SQL queries, local Python notebooks, screenshots pasted into Google Docs, and CSV exports into decks. They set out to build what they describe as the tool they wished they had, bringing notebooks and data visualization into a single collaborative platform and aiming to become the "frontend for the modern data stack."
Business model
Hex sells a cloud data/analytics platform to organizations, with a free entry tier ("Get started for free") alongside a sales-led motion for larger accounts ("Request a demo", contact sales, enterprise offering and pricing pages). The platform is positioned as a shared workspace that both data teams and business users access, with administration, permissions and governance features indicating a workspace/seat-based enterprise deployment model. Sources do not disclose specific pricing tiers or contract values.
The sources indicate a commercial software model with a free tier and paid enterprise offering (pricing page, enterprise page, contact sales), but do not disclose pricing mechanics, revenue figures or ARR. Boring Business Nerd reported 4x revenue growth in the 12 months to March 2023, and the Series C post references crossing unspecified revenue milestones.
Traction
As of May 2025, Hex reported more than 1,500 teams worldwide using the platform and said it had crossed unspecified customer and revenue milestones. As of March 2023 it had 450+ customers, 73 employees, $102 million raised, and reported 4x growth in revenue and business size over the prior 12 months. Customers cited include the NBA — whose chief data and analytics officer said Hex has a "key role in the NBA's data science workflow" and is used in building LLMs and other AI tools — plus Cisco, Notion, Reddit, StubHub, Anthropic, Figma, HubSpot and Rivian.
Latest developments
In May 2025 Hex announced a $70M Series C led by Avra with participation from a16z, Amplify, Box Group, Next Legacy, Redpoint, Sequoia and Snowflake, stating it had crossed unspecified customer and revenue milestones and had welcomed the Hashboard team. The company framed its focus as "agentic analytics": frontier exploratory analysis with AI agents, canonizing results into data apps and semantic models that in turn serve as AI context, and natural-language self-serve exploration. Current product documentation describes newer capabilities including Context Studio, evals for answer quality, Hex CLI, MCP access from external AI tools, and Slack-based querying.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
Hex competes in the data analytics and business intelligence market, which Fortune cited research valuing at roughly $37 billion globally in 2025 and potentially more than $116 billion by 2033. Fortune identifies Looker (acquired by Google for $2.6 billion in 2019), Tableau (acquired by Salesforce for $15.7 billion), Microsoft Power BI, Deepnote and Sigma as competitors. Hex differentiates against traditional BI by arguing that most decision-driving questions are not answerable by dashboards. Contrary Research listed Hex as private, at Series B stage with $102 million raised as of March 2023; by May 2025 the company reported more than 1,500 teams worldwide using the product.
Hex positions itself as connecting workflows that are typically fragmented across BI tools, notebooks and standalone AI assistants, without forcing all users into one interface: the same governed context and execution layer is reachable from Hex, MCP clients, the CLI and Slack. Other stated differentiators include a context engine that grounds agent answers in shared business definitions and improves context over time, Context Studio lineage into how each answer was produced, evals for measuring response quality, consistent permissions for both users and agents, and portability of context rather than a proprietary layer. Historically, differentiation rested on combining notebooks and visualization in one real-time collaborative product with a reactive graph-based compute engine and a "low floor, high ceiling" approach.
Technology
The platform pairs SQL and Python notebook cells with a reactive, graph-based compute engine, no-code charts, an app builder for publishing interactive apps and dashboards, scheduled runs, version history and real-time collaboration. AI capabilities include a notebook agent, conversational threads and AI-generated SQL/Python, grounded by a context engine that ingests semantic models, dbt code, warehouse metadata, markdown files and external app context; Hex says it automatically identifies context gaps and captures knowledge from prior analyses. Governance and observability features include Context Studio for inspecting context, queries and steps behind an answer, evals for measuring response quality and catching regressions, audit/usage observation, and permissions applied consistently to both users and agents. Access surfaces include the Hex web app, MCP integrations with tools such as Claude and ChatGPT, a CLI usable with coding agents such as Claude Code and Codex, and Slack. Hex connects to cloud data warehouses and data stack tools.
Go-to-market
Hex offers self-service signup (free start) alongside demo requests and a sales team, supported by documentation, templates, comparison and "switching to Hex" content, a blog, newsletter and events. The company markets at industry events such as Snowflake Summit, where it hosted a booth and a customer event, and it has an investor and partner relationship with Snowflake (Snowflake Ventures participated in the Series C). Adoption is also extended through integrations that let users reach Hex from Slack, MCP-compatible assistants like Claude and ChatGPT, and coding agents via the CLI.
Hex targets organizations' data teams and their business stakeholders — data analysts, data scientists, business users and executives — across a range of analytics workflows, with admin, permissions and governance tooling aimed at enterprise data leaders. Named customers cited in the sources include the NBA, Cisco, Notion, Reddit, StubHub, Anthropic, Figma, HubSpot and Rivian; earlier customer lists (March 2023) added OpenSea, Fivetran, Glossier, Brex, Noom, AngelList, Algolia and Glean.
Geography
Hex Technologies Inc. is headquartered in San Francisco, California. Its Series C post refers to teams worldwide using the product, but the sources do not detail additional offices or regional operations.
History
Contrary Research dates Hex's founding to October 2019, while Fortune and The SaaS News describe the company as founded in 2020 by McCardel with Caitlin Colgrove and Glen Takahashi. The company raised a $52M Series B reported by TechCrunch in March 2022 and a further $28M reported in March 2023; by March 2023 Contrary listed total funding of $102 million, 73 employees, and Series B stage, with roughly 450+ customers and reported 4x year-over-year revenue growth. In May 2025 Hex announced a $70M Series C led by Avra and said it had welcomed the Hashboard team, alongside crossing unspecified customer and revenue milestones. Product positioning has shifted over time from a collaborative notebook/data workspace to an "AI analytics platform" built around agents, context and governance.
Risks & controversies
Sources note a deeply competitive business intelligence and analytics market containing mature giants and large incumbents formed by mega-deals (Google/Looker, Salesforce/Tableau, Salesforce's announced $8 billion Informatica acquisition), plus venture-backed rivals such as Deepnote and Sigma. Fortune also raised the question of AI-driven labor pressure on data teams; McCardel said customers report using AI to address high-drudgery data work rather than to shrink teams. Sources conflict on the founding year (2019 vs 2020). No controversies are reported in the material provided.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — 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 — not independently audited.
Founder mafia
2 people who came through Hex went on to found or lead other companies.
Competitors · 3
by search overlap
Companies competing with Hex for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
Timeline · 4
launches, deals, and filingsIn its Series C announcement, Hex said it had welcomed the Hashboard team, who are contributing to its agentic analytics vision. The post does not state deal terms.
Hex announced a $70 million Series C round led by Avra, with participation from a16z, Amplify, Box Group, Next Legacy, Redpoint, Sequoia, and Snowflake (Snowflake Ventures). Funds are to be used to further develop the AI-native platform and expand the team.
$70M source ↗
TechCrunch reported (March 23, 2023) that Hex landed another $28M as its data collaboration platform continued to gain traction.
$28M source ↗
TechCrunch reported (March 22, 2022) that Hex scored a $52M Series B to grow its data science collaboration platform.
$52M source ↗
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Hexhex.tech · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Hex do?
- Hex is a San Francisco-based AI analytics platform combining SQL/Python notebooks, AI agents and data apps for enterprise data teams.
- Who founded Hex?
- Hex was founded by Barry McCardel, Caitlin Colgrove, Glen Takahashi in 2019.
- Who are Hex's investors?
- Hex's investors include 137 Ventures, Amplify Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Dash VC, Lorimer Ventures, Next Legacy Partners, Operator Collective, Redpoint Ventures and 8 more.
- How much funding has Hex raised?
- Hex has disclosed $70M raised across 1 of its 4 known rounds.
- Where is Hex headquartered?
- Hex is headquartered in San Francisco, US.