Enigma, a search and discovery platform for public data, announced it had raised $4.5 million in a first round of funding that was led by Comcast Ventures.
Other participants in the funding round included American Express Ventures, Crosslink Capital and the New York Times Company.
Enigma, which got off the ground in May of last year, helps users cut through the clutter of public data through a single interface that connects billions of public records across previously disconnected datasets.
Enigma’s central interface and API enable searches across real estate assessments, FCC licenses, SEC filings, government spending contracts, and other public records.
“Leveraging public data requires an immense investment of time, effort, budget and expertise,” said Andrew Cleland, managing director at Comcast Ventures. “We believe in the team’s strategy and mission, and look forward to working together with Enigma to help the company redefine public knowledge.”
At launch, Enigma targeted financial institutions, news media, academia and professional services as its primary customer groups given the industries’ reliance on data and information.
Prior to this latest round of funding, Enigma raised $850,000 in seed funding from CrossLink Capital, TriplePoint Ventures, and numerous angel investors, as well as secured partnerships with Harvard Business School, research firm Gerson Lehrman Group, and S&P Capital IQ.
Enigma is currently available as a subscription service and as an API for big data analytics.
Earlier this week, TiVo announced that it was buying search and recommendation vendor Digitalsmiths for $135 million in cash.
