Tableau acquires Infoactive, a start-up that turns data into infographics

5 Aug 2015

Tableau CEO Christian Chabot. The acquisition of Infoactive will be instrumental in Tableau's mission to create mobile and cloud products for visualising data

Data visualisation player Tableau Software has made its first acquisition: Montreal-based Infoactive, an infographic web app start-up.

Infoactive helps people turn live data into mobile-friendly, interactive infographics.

The company won the award for Best Bootstrap Company at SXSW in 2013, followed by a successful Kickstarter campaign later that year.

Infoactive launched its first public beta in 2014.

As part of the acquisition, its three employees will join Tableau’s development team.

The Tableau mission to help people see and understand data

“Our goal at Infoactive was to blend our passion for data and design to help people make sense of information,” said Trina Chiasson, CEO of Infoactive.“We’ve always admired Tableau’s mission to help people see and understand data and we’re thrilled to work together to pursue our shared vision.”

Tableau was founded in 2003 by Christian Chabot along with his Stanford friends Chris Stolte and Pat Hanrahan in Chabot’s apartment.

The company’s technology was in great demand in the aftermath of the economic crash and it is used by individuals, educators, journalists and organisations like Aon, Bank of Ireland, Irish Life and Daft.ie, to name a few, to make sense of vast amounts of data.

Tableau floated on the New York Stock Exchange in 2013, raising US$250m and the company’s 2013 revenue reached US$234.4m, up 84pc on US$128m the year before.

Tableau currently employs around 40 people in Dublin and has moved into a new Dublin office at The Oval on Shelbourne Road with room to accommodate up to 100 people.

“The Infoactive team will be a great addition to the Tableau family,” said Dave Story, VP of mobile and strategic growth at Tableau.

“Their experience in data and design, as well as building mobile and cloud-sharing products, will be a great asset to our development team.”

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com