Palantir founder hits out at claims unicorn startup is struggling
A founder of one of the world's most highly valued startups has hit back at claims the company is struggling with the loss of clients and staff.
Joe Lonsdale, a founder of the secretive startup Palantir along with PayPal pioneer Peter Thiel and others, which boasts the Bank of England as one of its clients, said it was "very easy to take a few select facts out of context and paint a negative story".
It has been claimed that the so-called unicorn startup has lost clients such as Coca-Cola, American Express and Nasdaq while there has been a higher turnover of staff in recent months, according to internal documents seen by Buzzfeed which also interviewed former employees.
Responding to the report Lonsdale, an entrepreneur and investor who remains an adviser to the firm, wrote on Quora: "The article made false implications about customer traction – the company had been expansive in who it worked with and then scaled with the areas that made sense and were aligned with its ethos and goals.
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"Of course a few of its client relationships might not have worked out – if that wasn't the case it would have meant they weren't exploring new industries properly. But that doesn't mean the firm is 'losing top customers'; in fact, it's astonishing they are doing so well that he only found three names in the last 13 months with which to claim they had issues."
The fourth most highly valued startup in the world, behind Uber, Xiaomi and Airbnb, boasts $1.9bn in funding with a valuation of $20bn.
Lonsdale insisted Palantir, which provides data insights to large firms, was sitting on a "large war chest" and is "growing at an amazing pace", although he acknowledged the employee turnover rate "had temporarily gone up to Silicon Valley norms versus the amazingly low rate of the past".
Palantir was initially funded by the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) venture arm and has since picked up many high-profile clients.
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According to the report oil firm BP is its biggest, signing a "memorandum of understanding" in 2014 worth $1.2bn over the next 10 years plus bonus payments to be agreed.
Other clients, which are all known by codenames, referred to in the documents include French insurance firm Axa (Asterix), Credit Suisse (Drizzy), Deutsche Bank (Dupin), JPMorgan Chase (Magnum), News Corp (Gouda), and aerospace firm Northrop Grumman (Moneyball).
The Bank of England's codename is Top Hat.