With $15 billion valuation, Palantir looks to raise more money

Palantir Technologies, the big data company founded by entrepreneur and billionaire investor Peter Thiel, is looking to raise yet another round of capital, after landing $500 million from investors last year, according to a report from Bloomberg News.

The report said Palantir raised the money in late 2014 "because investors were eager to invest." The company is currently raising even more financing, Bloomberg News said.

Palantir sealed a $50 million round in November to close out its mega fundraising year. To date, the company has raised roughly $1 billion from hedge funds and venture capital firms. Palantir, one of the most secretive of Silicon Valley's leading VC-backed companies, sells software for data mining and data visualization, and counts several big Wall Street firms and the CIA among its customers. It was founded in 2004 by Thiel and other alumni from San Jose payments company PayPal.

The company's valuation has soared from $9 billion as of mid-2014 to $15 billion in November, after closing the $500 million investment. At $15 billion, Palantir ranks as the third most-valuable venture-backed company in the world, and second most-valuable in the U.S. It trails Uber, which has a $41 billion market cap, and China-based Xiaomi, the powerhouse electronics company and smartphone distributor, which is valued at $46 billion, according to data from The Wall Street Journal.