Almost exactly one month after Prague-based data company MANTA planted its flag in Tampa, the company closed on $35 million.
It was fortuitous timing, its founder and CEO Tomas Kratky said, while venture capital firms across the globe have slowed their spending in the last quarter.
“We got it the very last moment before the startup ecosystem crashed,” Kratky joked.
It is the company’s Series B, following a $13 million Series A raised in October 2020. The latest was led by Switzerland-based Forestay Capital, with participation from European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Previous investors also joined, including Bessemer Venture Partners, SAP.io, Senovo VC, Credo Ventures and Dan Fougere.
MANTA offers a data lineage platform that ensures data integrity, allowing users full visibility and control of their data pipeline. In April, it tapped Tampa as its U.S. headquarters, where it employs roughly 40 of the company’s 150 employees.
“We thought, ‘We need to scale, need to have access to an interesting tech hub and don’t want to be in last place,’” Kratky said after first landing in New York City. “We did a long analysis and finally decided on this area.”
It’s the company's fourth location; it also counts homes in Portugal, Ireland and its global headquarters in the Czech Republic.
The latest funding will primarily go toward hiring, Kratky said, with the goal to hit 200 employees worldwide by the end of the year and 300 total by the end of 2023. Roughly 40% of those would be in Tampa, he said, focused mainly on the operations side of the business.
The company is currently leasing space in downtown Tampa’s WeWork and is searching for a more permanent office space.
“We wanted to move, but it’s really a more difficult task than we thought,” he said. “We have a very specific idea of what we want for employees and how the whole space should be structured and the right location.”
He estimates the company will end up in a Tampa spot but did not rule out St. Petersburg.
“We thought, ‘What are the rising stars on the East Coast that we believe will grow very quickly?’” Kratky said. “We landed here, and I believe it’s one of the future tech hubs of the U.S. — and I wanted to be here first.”
