Tracer, a platform that attempts to consolidate an organization’s data sources and enrich them with business insights, today announced that it raised $18.1 million in a Series A funding round co-led by NewRoad Capital Partners, Progress Ventures, and BDMI with participation from S4S Ventures and Arbour Way Investors.

CEO Jeff Nicholson said that the new cash will be put toward Tracer’s expansion efforts, scaling its technology, establishing a sales team and “enhancing” the startup’s client success resources. To date, Tracer has raised $30 million.

“With the backing of our investors and confidence in our future, Tracer is well-positioned to achieve continued success and make a significant impact in the market, not only for marketers but also to empower businesses spanning diverse industries,” Nicholson told TechCrunch via email.

Tracer traces its roots back to 2015 when co-founders Nicholson and Leighton Welch pitched Gary Vaynerchuk, the entrepreneur and internet personality, on building out a global media department inside of Vaynerchuk’s creative agency, VaynerMedia. Over the next few years, the media department grew from a few people to a few hundred people, all the while incubating a tech company to power the department as it scaled.The tech company became Tracer, which spun out as an LLC in 2018 at the request of a customer. Nicholson came on as CEO in 2020, and in 2021, Tracer raised its first seed round.

“Most companies today are doing reporting and analytics by building out a ‘modern data stack,'” Nicholson said. “We believe that’s too expensive — and too complicated. The modern data stack is a means to an end — reporting and analytics – and the intellectual property is in how you use it.”