Hex Raises $16M Series A to Advance Collaborative Data Workspace

Hex Secures $16 Million in Series A Funding

Within organizations, data is increasingly prevalent, and employees are actively seeking methods to leverage it for enhanced business results. Hex, a company focused on streamlining data access and collaboration for data scientists and other personnel, has announced a $16 million Series A funding round.

This investment arrives just over six months following the startup’s initial $5.5 million seed round.

Investment Details

Redpoint Ventures spearheaded today’s funding, with participation from existing investors including Amplify Partners, Data Community Fund, Geometry, Operator Collective, Tokyo Black, Vandelay Ventures, and XYZ Venture Capital. Additionally, several unnamed industry experts contributed to the round.

To date, Hex has raised a total of $21.5 million, as reported by the company.

Product Evolution: Hex 2.0

Significant progress has been made since the initial seed funding and the beta release of their product. According to CEO and co-founder Barry McCardel, a more comprehensive product is now available.

“We’ve recently launched a completely redesigned version, which we’re calling Hex 2.0, and it represents a fundamental shift in how many data science workflows are executed,” McCardel stated.

As previously detailed during the $5.5 million seed round announcement in March, Hex aims to challenge established data science notebook tools such as Jupyter.

McCardel acknowledges Jupyter’s popularity but points out inherent limitations. “Traditional code notebooks like Jupyter are widely used, but they suffer from issues related to reproducibility, interpretability, and performance – problems that are well-recognized within the field.” Hex 2.0 is specifically engineered to address these shortcomings.

Growth and Team Expansion

Currently, Hex serves dozens of customers. The company has grown from a team of five at the time of the seed round to 18 employees, with plans to reach approximately 24 by year-end.

The founding team, comprised of CTO Caitlin Colgrove and Chief Architect Glen Takahashi, is committed to building a diverse and inclusive company.

Commitment to Diversity

“From the outset, we’ve dedicated considerable effort and intention to building a diverse team. This involves ensuring equity throughout our entire recruitment process, from initial sourcing to the final offer stage,” McCardel explained.

“We’ve implemented strategies like distributed hiring and actively partnered with diverse communities to broaden opportunities.”

Strategic Partnership with dbt Labs

Hex has also announced a partnership with dbt Labs, a company specializing in data transformation. This collaboration will facilitate seamless data preparation within data warehouses like Snowflake, enabling analysis within tools like Hex.

The two companies will implement several integrations to simplify workflows and eliminate the need to switch between applications.