Alation, Inc.
Private data intelligence company that pioneered the enterprise data catalog, founded 2012 in Redwood City and valued at $1.7 billion in 2022.
Company Type
private
Founded
2012
Headquarters
Redwood City, California, United States
Revenue
Estimated $100 million (private)
Employees
Approximately 500 to 600
Primary Market
Global
About Alation, Inc.
What does Alation do?
Alation sells a data intelligence platform that catalogs, governs, and contextualizes enterprise data across more than 100 sources. Organizations use it to find trusted data, enforce governance, and increasingly to build AI agents on governed context.
Is Alation publicly traded?
No. Alation is private, backed by $340 million in venture capital. Its last round, a $123 million Series E in November 2022, valued the company at $1.7 billion.
Who founded Alation?
Satyen Sangani, Aaron Kalb, Feng Niu, and Venky Ganti founded the company in 2012 in Redwood City. Sangani, a former Oracle analytics executive, remains CEO.
Where is Alation headquartered?
Alation is headquartered at 3 Lagoon Drive in Redwood City, California, with a major engineering center in Chennai, India, and offices in the UK and Australia.
How many customers does Alation have?
More than 650 enterprises use the platform, including Nasdaq, Hertz, and Samsung, with concentration in financial services, healthcare, and other regulated industries.
What did Alation acquire?
In May 2025 Alation acquired Numbers Station, an AI-native data applications startup, to accelerate its agent-building capabilities. The technology underpins Agent Builder and the 2026 AIOS platform.
History of Alation, Inc.
The founding team assembled in 2012 around a shared frustration from Oracle, Apple, and Google: data users could not answer basic questions about their own data. Satyen Sangani had run Oracle's business analytics unit; Aaron Kalb and Venky Ganti brought Apple and Google engineering pedigrees; Feng Niu completed the technical bench.
Early Alation sold the catalog as a search box for enterprise data, winning large accounts that competitors had ignored by making metadata approachable to business users rather than DBAs. The company essentially named and defined the category.
Funding tracked the rise of the data stack: seed and early rounds from top firms, then larger growth capital as catalogs became required buying. The November 2022 Series E, $123 million led by Thoma Bravo's growth fund with HPE participating, set a $1.7 billion valuation near the market top.
The AI pivot built on the metadata foundation. The May 2025 acquisition of Numbers Station added AI-native data application builders; the October 2025 Agent Builder let enterprises create governed agents on the catalog's knowledge layer; and the July 2026 Alation Intelligence Operating System consolidated the vision of a data, context, and agent operating layer.
Awards & Recognition
Alation is a consistent Gartner Magic Quadrant leader in metadata and data governance categories. ISG rated it Exemplary across its 2025 Buyers Guides for data intelligence, governance, data quality, and data products, the strongest independent validation of its platform breadth. Past honors include Forbes Cloud 100 and analyst recognitions for catalog innovation.
Controversy, Regulation & Public Scrutiny
Alation has no significant public controversies or regulatory actions. Scrutiny centers on the 2022-era valuation against a reset market and on workforce reductions reported through 2025 and 2026, ordinary late-stage startup pressures rather than scandal.
Brands Owned by Alation, Inc.
Alation, Inc. owns 1 brand in our database. Explore the ownership tree below — click categories to expand and see individual brands.
Alation, Inc.
private · Founded 2012 · Redwood City, California, United States
1
brands
Alation, Inc. Ownership: Pros & Cons
Advantages
- +Category-defining brand with deep enterprise governance credibility
- +Founder continuity and a technical founding team still engaged
- +Strong strategic investors double as go-to-market partners
- +AI agent context layer is a genuine new demand driver
Considerations
- -Platform vendors absorb more catalog features every release cycle
- -Smaller workforce limits go-to-market reach against larger rivals
- -No new primary capital since 2022 constrains aggression
- -Crowded governance market compresses differentiation at the edges
Frequently Asked Questions About Alation, Inc.
What does Alation do?
Alation sells a data intelligence platform that catalogs, governs, and contextualizes enterprise data across more than 100 sources. Organizations use it to find trusted data, enforce governance, and increasingly to build AI agents on governed context.
Is Alation publicly traded?
No. Alation is private, backed by $340 million in venture capital. Its last round, a $123 million Series E in November 2022, valued the company at $1.7 billion.
Who founded Alation?
Satyen Sangani, Aaron Kalb, Feng Niu, and Venky Ganti founded the company in 2012 in Redwood City. Sangani, a former Oracle analytics executive, remains CEO.
Where is Alation headquartered?
Alation is headquartered at 3 Lagoon Drive in Redwood City, California, with a major engineering center in Chennai, India, and offices in the UK and Australia.
How many customers does Alation have?
More than 650 enterprises use the platform, including Nasdaq, Hertz, and Samsung, with concentration in financial services, healthcare, and other regulated industries.
What did Alation acquire?
In May 2025 Alation acquired Numbers Station, an AI-native data applications startup, to accelerate its agent-building capabilities. The technology underpins Agent Builder and the 2026 AIOS platform.
Sources & Further Reading
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