Telstra Ventures led a $100 million funding round in US-based software company Trifacta, as part of a push to help the Australian operators’ customers gain insight from data to drive their businesses in future, The Australian reported.

Privately-owned Trifacta develops advanced machine learning software to streamline data gathering and analysis.

Matthew Koertge, MD of Telstra’s independent venture capital arm, told the newspaper: “We want to work with some of Telstra’s customers that have a need for the Trifacta revolution. We have already had some discussions with customers who have some interest”.

Telstra Ventures was one of five new investors which joined the latest funding round, alongside Energy Impact Partners, NTT Docomo Ventures, BMW iVentures and ABN AMRO Digital Impact Fund. Existing backers including Google, Infosys and Greylock Partners also participated.

In a statement, Trifacta said the new capital will accelerate its expansion into new geographies, verticals and product areas, noting Telstra and NTT Docomo will be instrumental in increasing customer success in Asia Pacific and help it penetrate the telecoms vertical.

The company said it uses AI and cloud computing technology to automate complex data engineering tasks and enable increased levels of self-service.