YCharts, the financial services company whose data reporting has it competing with giants such as Yahoo! Finance, today announced its third round of funding. With $3.875 million from Morningstar Inc. and Reed Elsevier Ventures, YCharts’ total funding to date hit $8.625 million.
“We’re very excited to bring on another large strategic partner with Reed Elsevier, and then having Morningstar continue to maintain an ownership percentage,” says CEO and co-founder Shawn Carpenter. “Both of their visions align with where we’re approaching the market, where we’re taking a very long term focus.”
Having grown leaps and bounds since its founding in 2009, the team behind YCharts has its eye on what they believe is a $25 billion opportunity. With stakes that high, Carpenter says it’s important not to rush into chasing a goal his company is not ready for yet.
With this round, YCharts is not only cementing its relationship with an existing powerhouse investor, it is also gaining the expertise of an entirely new group. Reed Elsevier is a European publishing company that owns Lexis Nexis, which provides one of the world’s largest databases of subscription-based information and sources. To Carpenter, the company’s sophisticated approach to subscription and information delivery is a valuable source for growth in those areas.
Growth, in fact, is the reason Carpenter and his team raised this round, which he described as “pre-emptive.” Based on the success YCharts has achieved in institutional markets so far, he found investors were interested before he even expected they would be. “We’re seeing growth,” Carpenter says. “We want to take advantage of it.”
The funding will be used to expand the sales team and invest in development, especially ahead of plans to expand globally in the coming year.
Visit YCharts’ website, check out their BIC profile, and follow them on Twitter at @ycharts.
