Silk

In 2010, Salar al Khafaji and Lon Boonen founded Silk in Amsterdam with the goal of helping people understand and visualize their data. Khafaji, who had dropped out of a Theoretical Physics master's program, led the company as CEO from its inception. Silk created a data publishing platform that allowed users to generate interactive charts and maps, attracting backing from notable venture capital firms like New Enterprise Associates and Atomico. The company provided a free platform for users to create these data visualizations, or "Silks." This tool was reminiscent of other data analytics software, aiming to make data more accessible and useful to a broader audience. A significant turn in Silk's journey came in August 2016 when the secretive data analytics powerhouse Palantir acquired the company. The deal was characterized as an 'acqui-hire', with Palantir primarily interested in the talent and expertise of the Silk team rather than the product itself. Consequently, while the existing Silk platform was to remain operational, all future development and support were halted as the team joined Palantir to work on what Khafaji described as "bigger and more important data problems."