- Observable’s platform was founded by leaders in the data visualisation and developer space
- Built for JavaScript and D3.js, Observable’s platform enables expressive visualisations,is interactive, is transparent and collaborative
Observable has raised its $10.5 million Series A funding led by Sequoia Capital and Acrew Capital. Observable’s platform was founded by leaders in the data visualization and developer space. Chief Technology Officer Mike Bostock created D3.js, the open source library for data visualisation.
He was previously a Graphics Editor at The New York Times. Chief Executive Officer Melody Meckfessel, former VP Engineering at Google, led large scale data and developer teams deliver successful outcomes for millions of users
Meckfessel added, “We are all experiencing the growth of data in the world. It’s overwhelming. Making sense of it is the biggest challenge facing our connected world. We believe working with data is an essential skill for everyone. Observable is here to help. It’s the first platform that allows anyone—from developers to academics to hobbyists—to explore and visualize data online together. We created Observable to help people from all different backgrounds become inspired, learn from each other and make sense of data.”
Democratising data literacy
It said that Observable is democratising data literacy and supporting those who want to understand and visualise data transparently in real time. It added that the platform empowers creators to further their learning through data visualisation and, ultimately, gain deeper insights. Built for JavaScript and D3.js, Observable’s platform enables expressive visualisations,is interactive, is transparent and collaborative.
Jim Goetz, partner at Sequoia and Observable board member added, “Melody and Mike are a dream team positioned to reinvent visualisation. Melody’s gifts in leading the developer community with simplicity and Mike’s linguistic design thinking for visualisation combine the best of both worlds. Ultimately, Melody, Mike and the Observable team are bringing data exploration and visualisation to the web, making it more accessible, collaborative and effective.”
