Since 2008 523 deals with more than $4.9B of investment

Investment in big data-related companies continues to trend upwards. The year 2012 saw an increase of almost 20% in the number of deals and almost 7% in the total amount invested despite several large deals in 2011 such as Oslsoft, Mu Sigma and Opera Solutions.

"Big data is being applied in various sectors from human resources to the health sector. A sign that it still has a long way to go is that 24% of the operations that are invested are in seed stage companies and 26% in series B rounds" analyses Diego Gutierrez, a specialist in alternative financing at Abra Invest.

Big data operations

Cloudera and Palantirhave been the two largest deals in the big data venture capital landscape. Both have been victims of frequent IPO rumours. The top 10 deals accounted for a total of $399M representing 30% of the total invested in the sector in 2012.