How does Trifacta make money?

The data wrangling company’s business model focuses on selling licenses of its software

Trifacta is company in the data wrangling space, which is another way of saying that the company takes raw data that is pulled in from a multitude of sources and cleans it up, turning it into something actionable. 

Here's how the company describes what it does on its homepage:

"Wrangling data is the most time-consuming and inefficient part of any data project – taking up over 80% of the time and resources. Trifacta enables anyone to more efficiently explore and prepare the diverse data of today by utilizing machine learning to provide a breakthrough user experience, workflow and architecture."

The company currently has three different product editions that it offers:

The first is Wrangler, which is designed for data analysts. It's a completely free, downloadable desktop application with no time limit to accessing the product. Wrangler is a hybrid desktop application requiring an Internet connection. The product can be used by one user who can use up to 100MB of data. The free Wrangler edition has over 50,000 users in 143 countries across the globe. 

The second product is Wrangler Pro, which is a cloud-based edition for individuals, teams and departments. Provides advanced functionality including larger data volumes, job scheduling, collaboration and broader connectivity. This product can be used by multiple users who get 40GB worth of data.

The third product that Trifacta offers is Wrangler Enterprise, which is designed to handle the most complex data wrangling workloads that need to support data at scale and a larger number of end users. Supports on-premise and cloud-based deployments and provides advanced features around security, governance and at-scale processing among other functionality. This product can be used by an unlimited number of users who get an unlimited amount of data.  

The Pro and Enterprise are licensed by the number of user licenses and the scale of processing required by the customer.

In addition to its three products, Trifacta also has indirect revenue channels through OEM relationships with various technology and consulting partners where Trifacta’s platform is embedded within the partner’s product or offering.

Founded in 2012, Trifacta has raised a total of $124 million in funding, including a $48 million round in January. Its investors include Google, New York Life, Deutsche Boerse, Ericsson, Columbia Pacific, Accel, Greylock Partners, Cathay Innovation, Ignition Partners, and Ridge Ventures.

Trifacta is currently being used by ten of thousands of wranglers all over the world and is in over 10,000 accounts. Its clients include Bank of America, Royal Bank of Scotland, Commerzbank, PepsiCo, eBay, Enstar, Deutsche Börse, The Centers for Disease Control (CDC), New York Life, BNSF Railway Company, and Nordea Bank. The company has seen its install base has grown by 3X in the last year.