The unattractive layer of AI agents that is essential: DataBahn secures $40 million to market it.

      The attractive aspect of AI lies in the models themselves, while the less glamorous, costly aspect involves providing them with the appropriate data. A startup has recently secured $40 million, betting that this task will become the next significant layer in enterprise solutions.

      DataBahn, a Texas-based company established in 2023, announced on Thursday that it has completed a $40 million Series B funding round led by Insight Partners, with contributions from Forgepoint, GTM Capital, and S3 Ventures. This funding round brings its total financing to $59 million.

      DataBahn offers what it calls an “agentic data control plane.” In simpler terms, it serves as a neutral intermediary between the systems that generate enterprise data and those that utilize it, including security tools, data warehouses, and increasingly, AI agents. Instead of flooding every system with all available logs, it filters, enriches, and directs only the necessary data while retrieving additional context as needed.

      The challenge of managing costs is significant. This situation is not coincidental. Companies generate more telemetry than their tools can handle. Costs related to cloud transfers, storage, increasing data volumes, and AI inference are all rising simultaneously. Attempting to move everything everywhere has resulted in a bill that few can defend.

      AI exacerbates the issue. Agents go beyond merely answering queries; they take action. This requires access to current, well-organized, and governed data. A control plane can also manage what information an agent is permitted to access and log any changes made to data and its routing, which is an important governance role in regulated sectors.

      The aim of the product is to transfer intelligence into the process itself. Cruz AI, described as its “data engineer,” monitors when a data source changes format and disrupts a pipeline, then generates an updated parser for human approval. This innovation replaces the laborious task of manually constructing each connector.

      The marketing strategy appears to be effective. DataBahn has reported a revenue increase of over 400% year on year, a net revenue retention of 180%, and no customer loss. It serves Fortune 100 companies across sectors like healthcare, finance, manufacturing, and transportation, including MVB Bank and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. The company primarily sells through partners, integrates with Microsoft's security infrastructure, and has emerged from the observability and security telemetry domain.

      However, there is an obstacle. Competitors like Cribl, Splunk, and the major cloud and security vendors also manage and store data. DataBahn must demonstrate that its “agentic data control plane” is a legitimate, distinct layer. Its strategy is founded on neutrality: no reliance on a single storage solution, vendor, or model. It plans to unveil new features at the Black Hat conference next month.

      The overarching strategy is straightforward. The influx of investment into AI infrastructure is beginning to target the foundational aspects, not just the models. DataBahn is betting that enterprises do not need to gather additional data but rather must effectively govern the data they already possess to enable AI to utilize it efficiently.