Enigma, a cutting-edge search and discovery platform for public data, today announced that it raised a $4.5 million Series A round of funding, led by Comcast Ventures, with participation from American Express Ventures, Crosslink Capital and the New York Times.

Enigma, which launched in May 2013, makes public data more accessible through a single, convenient interface that connects billions of public records across previously disconnected datasets. Petabytes of public data are created by governments, companies, and institutions each year; however it is tedious if not impossible to both navigate and discover connections across them. Enigma solves this problem by offering a central interface and API to this universe, spanning everything from import bills of lading, real estate assessments, FCC licenses, SEC filings, government spending contracts and much more.

'Leveraging public data requires an immense investment of time, effort, budget and expertise,' said Andrew Cleland, Managing Director at Comcast Ventures. 'We believe in the team's strategy and mission, and look forward to working together with Enigma to help the company redefine public knowledge.'

At launch, Enigma targeted financial institutions, news media, academia and professional services as its primary customer groups given the industries' reliance on data and information.

'Enigma has done a tremendous job building a robust infrastructure for the aggregation of public data,' said Rohit Bodas, Partner at American Express Ventures. 'We're excited to work with such an impressive team and help the company extend the platform to more industries.'

Prior to this latest round of funding, Enigma raised $850,000 in seed funding from CrossLink Capital, TriplePoint Ventures, and numerous angel investors, as well as secured partnerships with Harvard Business School, research firm Gerson Lehrman Group, and S&P Capital IQ. Enigma is currently available as a subscription service and as an API for big data analytics.

For more information on Enigma, visit http://enigma.io.

About Enigma

Enigma is a data search and discovery technology, structured on top of the broadest collection of public data on the market. It empowers users to find hidden facts and connections across a universe of disparate and siloed data sources. The company was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in New York City. The company launched to the public in May 2013 after winning the TechCrunch Disrupt competition in New York.