Business intelligence platform Lightdash raises €10M from Accel, Y Combinator, others

Lightdash, an open-source business intelligence (BI) platform, has raised $11M (approximately €10M) in its Series A round of funding to promote self-serve data analytics for modern teams.

The round was led by existing investor Accel, with contributions from Operator Partners, Shopify Ventures, Y Combinator, and angel investors including including Michael Grinch (Founder and CEO, WorkOS) and Shuo Wang (Co-founder and CRO, Deel).

Andrei Brasoveanu, partner at Accel, says, “Lightdash has demonstrated incredible growth since we partnered with the company for its seed round two years ago, and it has clearly become the most innovative BI platform on the market. Building effective, powerful self-serve BI has been a long-term challenge for data teams of all sizes.” 

“We believe the approach Lightdash is taking, providing companies with the tools to make their data teams 10x more productive rather than cut them out completely, is unique and impressive. We’re delighted to continue supporting Hamzah, Oliver and the Lightdash team.”

The BI platform for data teams

Lightdash aims to address the shortcomings of legacy BI tools, which often silo data and require extensive SQL skills. 

Founded in 2021 by Hamzah Chaudhary and Oliver Laslett, the platform integrates developer workflows with modern tools and offers a user-friendly experience for non-technical users.

Lightdash provides automated testing and version control, enabling data teams to manage BI more efficiently. Its integrations with tools like Slack and Google Sheets allow non-technical users to independently access data insights. 

The platform has seen significant growth, with a 50-fold increase in usage since its seed round in 2022, and currently supports nearly two queries per second.

Funds to expand in Europe and the US

The raised capital will help Lightdash support its product development, technical enhancements, and the expansion of developer teams in the US and Europe.

Hamzah Chaudhary, founder and CEO of Lightdash, says, “At Lightdash, we want to build self-serve tools that empower data teams to become superheroes. We’ve received incredible feedback on the platform over the last two years, especially since the launch of Lightdash Cloud, and we’re looking forward to continuing to grow our user base and build more powerful BI features like our AI analyst service in the future.”

“We’re excited to continue partnering with Accel and our new investors joining the round on our journey to making all data-driven decisions accessible, actionable and consistent.”

The company recently launched Lightdash Cloud, its first commercial product, which has attracted thousands of weekly users from organisations like Beauty Pie and Workday, resulting in a 7x revenue growth in under a year. 

Additionally, Lightdash is introducing a context-specific AI analyst service, allowing teams to ask data-related questions in natural language and receive tailored insights without needing prior data knowledge.