Narrative
Narrative is a New York-based data collaboration platform founded in 2016 that uses AI-driven normalization, graph-agnostic identity resolution, and a marketplace to help enterprise marketers, data scientists, and data-rich companies collaborate on and activate data without bespoke ETL pipelines.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2016
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Narrative does
Narrative (Narrative I/O, Inc.) is a New York-based data collaboration platform founded in 2016 that targets enterprise marketers, data scientists, and companies with monetizable first-party data assets. The company's core proposition is the automation of cross-source data normalization and identity resolution through its Rosetta Stone Normalization Engine (AI-assisted schema mapping with confidence scoring at query time) and graph-agnostic Identity Orchestrator (configurable deterministic and probabilistic matching), eliminating the bespoke ETL pipelines that traditionally accompany each new data partnership. The platform is sold primarily via direct enterprise sales with a 'Book a Demo' motion, supplemented by a self-serve tier (app.narrative.io) and distribution as a Snowflake Native App.
The technology stack is built around four core products — Rosetta Stone Normalization Engine, Identity Orchestrator, Marketplace, and Connectors — supplemented by NQL (a proprietary SQL-like query language), the Narrative Anywhere in-cloud compute pattern, Audience/Graph/Look-alike Studios, a TypeScript SDK, and a remote Model Context Protocol (MCP) server enabling Claude and other AI agents to operate Narrative infrastructure directly. The May 2026 Marketplace expansion reframed the business from a data licensing venue into a composable hub for enterprise data and AI infrastructure, with row-level provenance, access rules, and licensing terms embedded as governance primitives.
The business model combines platform subscriptions (PAYG usage-based month-to-month plus committed annual contracts), data transaction fees from facilitating licensing between Data Licensors and Data Licensees, and marketplace commissions on the expanded data/AI/connector/workflow hub. Notable enterprise customers include Nielsen, TransUnion, Experian, Block (Afterpay), Fanatics, and Disqus; named strategic partnerships include Block, Snowflake, and Anthropic. The company is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, maintains a 51-100 headcount, and has raised approximately $13.75M in disclosed funding through a 2021 round.
Narrative firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Narrative
- Legal name
- Narrative I/O, Inc.
- Website
- https://narrative.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2016
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Narrative is a New York-based data collaboration platform founded in 2016 that uses AI-driven normalization, graph-agnostic identity resolution, and a marketplace to help enterprise marketers, data scientists, and data-rich companies collaborate on and activate data without bespoke ETL pipelines.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Narrative industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Data Collaboration Platform
- NAICS
- Software Publishers (513210), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)
- SIC
- Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Metadata, Catalog & Semantic Layer for Data Platforms (HDAEABAJ)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Data Sharing & Data Marketplace Governance (HDAEADAK), Metadata Management & Cataloging (Taxonomy, Semantic Search, AI Tagging) (MPAHAGAG)
Keywords
Where Narrative is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Narrative business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Platform Subscription Services: Narrative provides access to the Narrative Platform as a technology provider enabling data access, analysis, and manipulation. Clients can purchase on a PAYG (pay-as-you-go) month-to-month basis with fees based on usage, or through committed annual contracts.
- Data Transaction Fees: Narrative facilitates data licensing transactions between Data Licensors and Data Licensees through the platform. Narrative collects Licensed Data Fees from Data Licensees and remits payment to Data Licensors minus service fees. Revenue is generated through transaction fees on data licensing activities.
- Marketplace Commission: The expanded Narrative Marketplace enables enterprises to assemble flexible data and AI components. Revenue is generated through the marketplace infrastructure facilitating data, AI skills, connectors, and workflow transactions.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Usage-based | Monthly | Pay-as-you-go (PAYG) flexible month-to-month pricing |
| Subscription | Annual | Committed annual contract pricing |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels5 records
Narrative product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Narrative provides a cloud-native data collaboration platform that uses AI to automatically normalize heterogeneous data schemas into a universal catalog at query time, resolves customer identities across fragmented sources through a graph-agnostic identity orchestrator, and enables enterprises to license, enrich, and activate data assets via a marketplace. The platform includes pre-built connectors for advertising platforms and cloud storage, and deploys within the customer's own cloud environment so that data and compute stay in-place.
Product overview
Narrative is a data collaboration platform offering a unified, composable infrastructure for enterprise data and AI. The core platform consists of four main products: (1) Rosetta Stone Normalization Engine for automatic AI-driven data schema mapping, (2) Identity Orchestrator for graph-agnostic identity resolution, (3) Narrative Marketplace for data licensing and AI skills/connectors, and (4) Connectors for activating audiences across advertising platforms. Supporting modules include Narrative Query Language (NQL) for querying normalized data, Narrative Anywhere for in-cloud computation, Audience Studio and Look-alike Studio for audience building, Graph Studio for identity configuration, and Query Builder for visual query construction. A TypeScript SDK enables programmatic access, while a Snowflake Native App and MCP server extend integration capabilities for enterprise environments and AI agents.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Rosetta Stone Normalization Engine AI-powered automatic data normalization engine that maps incompatible data schemas into a universal catalog at query time, eliminating traditional ETL pipelines and enabling cross-supplier data queries without bespoke mappings.
- Identity Orchestrator Graph-agnostic identity resolution system that connects fragmented customer data from multiple sources with configurable deterministic and probabilistic matching, supporting bring-your-own logic and deployed inside customer's own cloud environment.
- Narrative Marketplace Centralized data marketplace and composable hub for enterprise data and AI infrastructure that enables buying, selling, and licensing of data assets with built-in governance, access rules, licensing terms, and row-level provenance tracking.
- Connectors Pre-built integrations that deliver audiences and data from Narrative to external advertising platforms and cloud storage destinations, handling authentication, data formatting, and delivery to Meta, Google Ads, Google DV360, The Trade Desk, TikTok, Pinterest, Yahoo DSP, Magnite, PubMatic, Hugging Face, and Amazon S3.
Quantifiable outcome
- Compressed media network deployment from multiple quarters to weeks
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Narrative
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Narrative technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration14 records
AI capability6 records
Feature8 records
Narrative partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.
- Block (Afterpay)coreStrategic partnership to enhance the Afterpay Media Network's data infrastructure with privacy-safe advertising capabilities. The collaboration integrates Narrative's data orchestration technology directly into Block's Snowflake environment, enabling brands and merchants to access advertising solutions without exposing sensitive financial or transaction data. The Afterpay Media Network is already live in Australia, powered by Yahoo DSP, and is positioned as a blueprint for privacy-respecting commerce media solutions.
- SnowflakecoreNarrative delivers its capabilities as a Snowflake Native App within Snowflake's AI Data Cloud architecture. The partnership enables enterprises to deploy Narrative's data normalization, identity resolution, and secure collaboration capabilities directly within their Snowflake environment. Snowflake's fifth annual Modern Marketing Data Stack report recognized Narrative as a 'One to Watch' in Data & Identity, based on insights from over 11,500 users and partners across 13 sectors.
- Anthropic (Claude MCP)flagshipNarrative launched a remote Model Context Protocol server enabling Claude and other MCP-compatible AI agents to directly operate Narrative's infrastructure. This integration enables AI-driven data workflows and positions Narrative as part of the emerging AI agent ecosystem.
Scale indicators3 records
Recent moves7 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Narrative competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- LiveRamp: Public identity resolution and data collaboration platform serving the same enterprise marketers, advertisers, and data-driven consumer brands. Direct overlap with Narrative's Identity Orchestrator, Marketplace, and Connectors offerings; LiveRamp is the scaled incumbent in this category.
- Habu: Data clean room and collaboration platform enabling privacy-safe data sharing between enterprises. Directly competes with Narrative's secure collaboration and normalization capabilities for the same marketing and data partnership use cases.
- InfoSum: Federated data collaboration platform for privacy-safe audience activation and identity resolution. Direct competitor in identity orchestration and cross-partner data collaboration for advertisers and publishers.
- Optable: Data clean room and identity infrastructure for advertisers, publishers, and retailers. Comparable positioning around privacy-safe data collaboration and audience activation overlapping with Narrative's Marketplace and Identity Orchestrator.
- Decentriq: Confidential computing-based data clean room platform enabling secure collaboration on sensitive data. Directly competes for enterprise use cases requiring privacy-preserving multi-party computation and governed data sharing.
- Samooha: Data clean room technology acquired by Snowflake and integrated natively into the Snowflake Data Cloud. Represents a direct in-platform alternative to Narrative's Snowflake-native deployment and intensifies the partner/competitor dynamic.
Broad incumbents
- Snowflake Data Clean Rooms: Built-in data clean room capabilities within the Snowflake AI Data Cloud. Competes directly with Narrative's clean room-style collaboration while simultaneously serving as Narrative's primary distribution channel via the Native App framework.
- Databricks Clean Rooms: Clean room and data sharing capabilities native to the Databricks Lakehouse Platform. Competes for the same enterprise data collaboration workloads, particularly with organizations standardizing on Databricks rather than Snowflake.
- AWS Data Exchange: Cloud-native data marketplace operated within the AWS ecosystem. Overlaps with Narrative's marketplace and data licensing functionality, particularly for AWS-centric enterprises, though narrower in collaboration and normalization tooling.
- TransUnion TruAudience: Identity resolution and audience activation offering from one of the major credit bureaus. Competes in identity orchestration and data collaboration while also being a Narrative customer, exemplifying the customer/competitor overlap dynamic.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Narrative social profiles
Digital presenceNarrative compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Narrative financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Narrative leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles5 records
Narrative funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds6 records
Investors12 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Narrative M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Narrative
What does Narrative do?
Narrative provides a cloud-native data collaboration platform that uses AI to automatically normalize heterogeneous data schemas into a universal catalog at query time, resolves customer identities across fragmented sources through a graph-agnostic identity orchestrator, and enables enterprises to license, enrich, and activate data assets via a marketplace. The platform includes pre-built connectors for advertising platforms and cloud storage, and deploys within the customer's own cloud environment so that data and compute stay in-place.
Is Narrative a public or private company?
Narrative is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Narrative founded?
Narrative was founded in 2016. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Narrative based?
Narrative is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
How does Narrative make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Platform Subscription Services are the primary driver. The others are data Transaction Fees and marketplace Commission.
Who are Narrative's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are LiveRamp, Habu, InfoSum, Optable, Decentriq and Samooha. Broad incumbents are Snowflake Data Clean Rooms, Databricks Clean Rooms, AWS Data Exchange and TransUnion TruAudience.
Does Narrative have an API?
Yes. Narrative provides a REST API for programmatic access to the platform. The API supports authentication via API keys, enabling developers to manage datasets, execute NQL queries, upload data, manage mappings, and integrate with external platforms. A TypeScript SDK (@narrative.io/data-collaboration-sdk-ts) is available for Node.js 18+. A Model Context Protocol (MCP) server is available, enabling AI agents like Claude to directly operate Narrative's infrastructure. Developer documentation is at docs.narrative.io.
What industry is Narrative in?
Narrative's product category is Data Collaboration Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAEABAJ, Metadata, Catalog & Semantic Layer for Data Platforms, with a secondary code of HDAEADAK, Data Sharing & Data Marketplace Governance. Its NAICS code is 513210 and its SIC code is 7372.