Data management startup Immuta is opening on Route 1

An expanding startup data management firm announced Thursday the anticipated Dec. 1 opening of its company headquarters on Route 1. 

Immuta, a provider of analytics marketed to large-scale companies, seeks to offer secure data organizing software for corporations, the U.S. government and intelligence community organizations, CEO and co-founder Matthew Carroll said.

“We live in a world where we have to make decisions with analytics. But how do you do that in large environments?” Carroll said. “Our goal is to make it easy for corporations to access data without fear of it getting leaked.”

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The company has 12 employees, but Carroll said he plans to hire interns from the University of Maryland to provide them with practical on-the-job experience as the startup gains momentum. Interns will assist the software engineers, the marketing and sales team or the operations staff, Carroll said.  

“Having these interns is important to us because we’re a young company, but we also want to groom future employees,” he said. “We hire people now with their ways of doing things and their bad habits, but it would be hugely beneficial to us to teach them how we do things from the beginning.”

As the previous general manager of 42six, a software company that offered engineering services and products within the public sector, Carroll said he hired several graduates from this university and was impressed by their talents, which motivated him to locate Immuta close to the campus.

“We knew we could make it work here,” he said. “The concept was important to us.”  

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Carroll said the company headquarters will encompass 4,000 square feet on the first floor of the facility on 8400 Baltimore Ave. The company is using its own funds to renovate the space, which is expected to be completed by the end of November. 

“The thing about College Park is that there’s not a lot of cool tech spaces,” Carroll said. “Like in Silicon Valley, there are spaces that are comfortable with coffee and free food — that’s what we want. A high-pace environment where any engineering major can come in and play with the software and learn.”

The company has earned $1.74 million in revenue and has recently gained another $1.5 million in venture capital, Carroll said. As of now, the company is operating without university or state funding, said Ken Ulman, this university’s economic development strategist.  

He said the university is thrilled with Immuta’s decision to base itself in College Park. 

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“A big part of my efforts here are to lure companies to start up in College Park and eventually grow and thrive here,” Ulman said. “This will provide our students with internship and job opportunities and supports President Loh’s Greater College Park vision.”

The Greater College Park vision, which aims to enhance this university via development on the campus, public-private research collaborations and downtown College Park projects, focuses on molding the city into a thriving college town. Carlo Colella, this university’s vice president for administration and finance, said Immuta will contribute to this overall goal.

“This is exactly the kind of emerging company we need to connect with the university,” Colella said. “We think this is an example of innovation.”

Colella said the university and city will benefit from the addition of Immuta to the existing innovation district, which boasts new jobs and services available to the College Park community.

“The innovation district is creating a convenient physical environment for entrepreneurship and startups,” he said. “We are very happy Immuta is making a choice to stay.”