Hex combined a Jupyter notebook, a SQL editor, and a BI dashboard into one collaborative workspace. Barry McCardel built it for data teams who were tired of switching between five different tools to answer one question. $97 million raised and used by companies like Notion, Brex, and Loom. It’s the Google Docs of data analysis — everyone works in the same document, real-time.
Founded
2019
HQ
San Francisco, USA
Total Raised
$97 million
Founder
Barry McCardel, Caitlin Colgrove, Glen Takahashi
Status
Private
Website
hex.techTHE ORIGIN STORY
Barry McCardel, Caitlin Colgrove, and Glen Takahashi were data scientists at Palantir who experienced firsthand how fragmented the data workflow was. SQL in one tool.
Python in another. Charts in another.
Sharing results via screenshots in Slack. It was chaos.
They founded Hex in 2019 to build a single collaborative platform where data teams could write SQL, Python, and create visualizations — all in one notebook-style interface that updates in real-time and can be shared like a Google Doc.
WHAT THEY ACTUALLY DO
SaaS subscription with per-seat pricing. Free tier for individual users.
Team and enterprise plans add collaboration, governance, and integration features. Revenue from mid-market and enterprise data teams.
THE PRODUCTS
Hex notebooks — combined SQL, Python, and no-code cells. Interactive data apps — publish analyses as live dashboards.
Magic — AI-powered data analysis assistant. Version control — Git-style branching for analyses.
Scheduling — automated notebook runs.
HOW THEY GREW
Product-led growth through the data community. Data scientists and analysts discover Hex through peers, write analyses in it, and share them with stakeholders — who then want Hex for their team.
The collaborative aspect creates natural viral expansion within organizations.
THE HARD PART
Jupyter notebooks are free and deeply entrenched. Mode Analytics, Deepnote, and Observable compete in the collaborative analytics space.
Databricks is building notebook capabilities into its platform. Differentiating enough to justify the subscription cost is the key challenge.
MONEY TRAIL
Seed
2020 · Led by Amplify Partners
$6M raised
Series A
2021 · Led by Redpoint Ventures
$16M raised
Series B
2022 · Led by Andreessen Horowitz
$52M raised
WHO BACKED THEM
Andreessen Horowitz led the Series B. Earlier investors include Redpoint Ventures, Amplify Partners, and Snowflake Ventures.
Total funding of $97 million.
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