Spotfire

Somerville MA. Data visualization and visual analytics platform. Co-founded 1996 by Christopher Ahlberg (CEO) and Ben Shneiderman, based on research at UMD Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL). Ahlberg worked under Shneiderman at UMD 1991 and 1993 — one of the two key papers became most-cited HCI paper per CiteSeer. Original product: IVEE (Information Visualization and Exploration Environment). Early pharma adoption for drug discovery and genomic data analysis. IQT portfolio — Troy Pearsall invested in Spotfire while at IQT. 200 employees. Acquired by TIBCO Software 2007 for $195M. TIBCO integrated as core analytics product. 2023: became business unit of Cloud Software Group. Christopher Ahlberg subsequently co-founded Recorded Future (also IQT portfolio) — two consecutive IQT-backed exits by same founder. [2026-05-28] Part of Troy's IQT VSA Visual Analytics deal book (Visual Sciences, Spotfire, Inxight); Troy led the IQT deal. Acquired by TIBCO 2007 (~$195M).