Palantir Files with SEC for Near-$1bn Fund-Raiser

Palantir Technologies, the secretive US-based big data firm which helps predict and track events for intelligence agencies and governments, as well as private clients, is raising around $961m in equity funding, with around $550m already sold.

The company briefed investors in April to the effect that it expects to record around $1 billion in revenues in 2020, an increase of 38% year-on-year. A possible IPO discussed in autumn 2018 is still said to be on the cards, although current estimates of the company's value appear to fall well short of the $41 billion touted then - figures of between $10bn and $26bn are reported.

A Form D filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission says the firm is looking to raise a further $411m but doesn't make clear how much of the money already booked is from secondary or previously undisclosed funding, or whether the round will delay any potential IPO. Last month Reuters reported that the firm had closed funding of $500m from Japanese insurance company Sompo Holdings, and $50 million from Fujitsu. Palantir's $3.3bn in funding to date includes $880m reported by DRNO in 2016.

Some reports suggest that the latest round of funding may relate to the up-front investments required for its current work tracking the pandemic, for a range of national governments: it has recently been in the news in the UK for working with the NHS and in the US working with the federal government on projects compiling and analysing Covid-19 data.

Palantir's behind-the-scenes work for US intelligence services is said to include helping the Pentagon and CIA locate and kill Osama bin Laden in 2011. The company was co-founded by billionaire investor Peter Thiel, a Board member at Facebook and co-founder and former CEO of PayPal.

Web site: www.palantir.com .