Fathom
Fathom Information Design is a Boston-based data visualization and information design studio that builds custom interactive tools and applications to help Fortune 500 enterprises, non-profits, and government organizations understand complex datasets across healthcare, finance, media, and social impact sectors.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2010
- HeadquartersBoston, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Fathom does
Fathom Information Design is a Boston-based data visualization and information design studio founded in 2010 by Ben Fry, who is also the creator of the Processing programming language. The firm operates as a project-based consultancy that designs and builds custom interactive tools, web applications, mobile apps, and large-format installations to help organizations understand and explore complex datasets. Core technology is built on Processing and Processing.js, enabling tailored platforms that operate at substantial data scale - for example, Stanford's Covert Causality Network handles 30,000+ biological molecules and processes, the athenahealth visualization depicts more than ten million daily patient interactions, and the No Ceilings platform for the Clinton and Gates Foundations aggregates nearly one million gender-equality data points.
Fathom serves two primary customer segments: Fortune 500 enterprises (GE, Google, National Geographic, Nike, State Street, Thomson Reuters, J.P. Morgan, Volkswagen, Samsung, Warner Bros, athenahealth) and non-profit, foundation, government, and academic organizations (Mayo Clinic, Stanford, World Bank, Clinton Foundation, Gates Foundation, Robin Hood Foundation, ProPublica, Knight Foundation, U.S. Federal Agencies). Revenue derives from professional-services project fees on these custom engagements, with a small secondary stream from direct-to-consumer print sales (All Streets, Dencity, Frankenfont) via an e-commerce storefront on fathom.info. The studio acquires clients through direct outreach, portfolio visibility, conference speaking, and referrals. No public pricing, funding history, or revenue figures are disclosed. The legal entity is Ben Fry LLC d/b/a Fathom Information Design LLC, and ownership is concentrated with the founder.
Fathom firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Fathom
- Legal name
- Ben Fry LLC d/b/a Fathom Information Design LLC
- Website
- https://fathom.info
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2010
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Fathom Information Design is a Boston-based data visualization and information design studio that builds custom interactive tools and applications to help Fortune 500 enterprises, non-profits, and government organizations understand complex datasets across healthcare, finance, media, and social impact sectors.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Fathom is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Boston
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Fathom business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Consulting and Project-Based Work: Custom data visualization and information design projects for Fortune 500 companies and non-profit organizations across healthcare, finance, media, technology, and consumer products sectors
- Print and Poster Sales: Sale of prints and posters including All Streets, Dencity, Frankenfont book, with proceeds partially donated to charity
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels2 records
Marketing channels5 records
Fathom product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Fathom Information Design is a Boston-based design studio that partners with Fortune 500 companies and non-profit organizations to transform complex datasets into custom, interactive data visualization tools and applications. The studio delivers end-to-end information design projects — from data analysis through interactive implementation — across web, mobile, tablet, and large-format installation formats, complemented by direct sales of data-driven print products such as All Streets, Dencity, and Frankenfont.
Product overview
Fathom Information Design is a design studio that builds platforms and products for understanding data. The company creates custom data visualization tools and interactive applications for clients across healthcare, finance, government, media, and social impact sectors. Key products include the Causality Network tool for Stanford's Covert Lab, Mayo Clinic healthcare data tools, athenahealth network visualizations, Open India for the World Bank, No Ceilings for the Clinton/Gates Foundations, Poverty Tracker for Robin Hood Foundation, Connected China for Thomson Reuters, Finding Farmland calculator, On Being discovery platform, and various internal projects like All Streets, Dencity, and Frankenfont. Work spans web applications, mobile apps, iPad installations, and large-format displays. The company was founded in 2010 by Ben Fry and is based in Boston.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Custom Data Visualization & Information Design Services End-to-end custom data visualization and information design consulting for Fortune 500 enterprises, foundations, non-profits, and government agencies. Engagements cover data analysis, design research, interactive application development, and deployment across web, mobile (iPad/Android), and large-format physical installations.
- All Streets (Print) Standalone data visualization print product depicting every street in the United States from 26 million individual road segments, sold through the Fathom website with proceeds partially donated to charity.
- Dencity (Print) Global population density map visualization using circles of varying size and hue to indicate sparse versus dense populations, sold as a print product through fathom.info.
- Frankenfont (Book) Reconstruction of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein using characters from incomplete fonts found in PDFs across the internet, sold as a book through the Fathom website.
- Fathom Watch Faces Collection of interactive watch face applications for Android Wear devices utilizing internal sensors including accelerometers and pedometers to deliver data-driven visuals at every glance. Distributed via the Google Play Store.
Quantifiable outcome
- More than ten million patient-to-healthcare interactions visualized daily for athenahealth
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Fathom
Customer profileNamed customers12 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Fathom technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability6 records
Feature3 records
Fathom partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
13 partnerships are on record, tiered core, minor and flagship.
- ProPublicacoreCreated visualization of government and campaign spending at Trump properties totaling $16.1 million, with web interface for browsing and downloading raw data.
- Mayo CliniccoreEngaged with Mayo Clinic's Center for Innovation and Design on design research, rapid prototyping, and workshops exploring data-centric healthcare interfaces of the future.
- National Young Farmers CoalitionminorBuilt Finding Farmland affordability calculator helping farmers understand financing options and create land purchasing scenarios.
- State Street CorporationcoreBuilt visualization depicting 200 years of financial sector growth, analyzing 40,000 financial indicators across data, connectivity, complexity, and scope dimensions.
- On BeingcoreBuilt discovery tool for podcast archive with 400+ conversations featuring relationship algorithms for playlist creation and exploration of themes across interviews.
- athenahealthcoreCreated visualization depicting patient movement through athenahealth's healthcare network, showing more than 10 million daily interactions across services including office visits, web portal, labs, and claims processing.
- Clinton FoundationflagshipCo-developed No Ceilings data-driven platform with Gates Foundation exploring 20 years of gender equality progress, driven by nearly one million data points across health, education, economic participation, and social inclusion.
- Bill and Melinda Gates FoundationflagshipCo-developed No Ceilings platform with Clinton Foundation for gender equality data visualization.
- Robin Hood FoundationcoreMulti-year partnership developing Poverty Tracker portal for understanding poverty and material hardship in New York City, in partnership with Columbia's Population Research Center.
- Stanford Covert LabcoreBuilt custom Causality Network tool for exploring whole-cell model containing 30,000+ molecules and processes, replacing manual searching and siloed Python scripts with central application for research discovery.
- Thomson ReutersflagshipCollaborated on Connected China project to explore China's elite power structure, featuring thousands of people, 30,000 connections, and quarter million words of text. Fathom designed and built the HTML5 application optimized for iPad and web browsers.
- World BankflagshipCreated Open India web application exploring the World Bank Group's Country Partnership Strategy for India, enabling navigation of engagement areas, outcomes, indicators, and hundreds of development projects.
- GEcoreMultiple projects including visualization of 120 years of GE annual reports, aging demographics visualization, and NikeFuel year-in-review. GE is featured as a major client on the homepage.
Scale indicators6 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights4 records
Fathom competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Pitch Interactive: Award-winning data visualization and interactive storytelling studio working with news organizations, NGOs, and cultural institutions; competes for similar bespoke interactive narrative engagements as Fathom.
- Accurat: Italian data-driven design studio producing custom data visualizations, infographics, and interactive narratives for editorial, institutional, and corporate clients — a European direct comparable in craft and clientele.
- Stamen Design: San Francisco-based data visualization and cartography studio with a similar boutique consultancy model and comparable high-profile clients in media, civic, and scientific domains — the closest direct peer to Fathom.
- Information is Beautiful (David McCandless): Independent data visualization practice producing editorial and corporate infographics and interactive pieces — overlaps with Fathom on custom information design for editorial and impact-focused clients.
- Domestic Data Streamers: Barcelona-based data visualization and interactive storytelling studio building immersive, data-driven installations and digital experiences for cultural and institutional clients.
- The Office for Creative Research: Brooklyn-based research and design studio building custom data-driven visualizations and tools for cultural, civic, and scientific clients — closely aligned with Fathom's bespoke tool + visualization offering.
Broad incumbents
- Pentagram: Largest independent design consultancy; not a pure data viz firm, but routinely commissions and delivers custom data-driven identity, editorial, and information design work for the same caliber of Fortune 500 clients.
- IDEO: Global design and innovation consultancy with a practice around data-driven service and product design; engages with the same Fortune 500 / institutional clients Fathom serves, though at much larger scale.
- Mu Sigma: Large decision sciences and analytics services firm that addresses adjacent enterprise data interpretation and visualization needs, often through long-term engagements with the same types of Fathom clients.
- Tableau (Salesforce): Market-leading BI and data visualization platform; competes at the lower end of Fathom's market by enabling in-house visualization, and increasingly overlaps in interactive dashboard delivery.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat3 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Fathom social profiles
Digital presenceFathom financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Fathom leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Fathom funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors1 record
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Fathom 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 Fathom
What does Fathom do?
Fathom Information Design is a Boston-based design studio that partners with Fortune 500 companies and non-profit organizations to transform complex datasets into custom, interactive data visualization tools and applications. The studio delivers end-to-end information design projects — from data analysis through interactive implementation — across web, mobile, tablet, and large-format installation formats, complemented by direct sales of data-driven print products such as All Streets, Dencity, and Frankenfont.
Is Fathom a public or private company?
Fathom is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Fathom founded?
Fathom was founded in 2010. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Fathom based?
Fathom is headquartered in Boston, United States, in the North America region.
How does Fathom make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Consulting and Project-Based Work is the primary driver. The others are print and Poster Sales.
Who are Fathom's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Pitch Interactive, Accurat, Stamen Design, Information is Beautiful (David McCandless), Domestic Data Streamers and The Office for Creative Research. Broad incumbents are Pentagram, IDEO, Mu Sigma and Tableau (Salesforce).
Does Fathom have an API?
No public API is recorded for Fathom.