Soda Data

The journey of Soda began with a shared frustration and a powerful vision. Co-founders Maarten Masschelein and Tom Baeyens, both seasoned veterans in the data space, had repeatedly witnessed the detrimental impact of poor data quality. They had spent countless late nights firefighting data issues that would only surface when it was too late, causing downstream chaos and eroding trust in the very data that was meant to drive critical business decisions. This firsthand experience of being 'in the dark' with their data became the crucible in which the idea for Soda was forged. Masschelein, having been an early employee at the data governance giant Collibra, and Baeyens, a creator of multiple successful open-source projects, brought together a unique blend of go-to-market expertise and deep technical acumen. They recognized that the existing tools for managing data quality were often cumbersome, siloed, and failed to address the needs of modern data teams who required a more collaborative and proactive approach.

In 2018, they officially launched Soda with a clear mission: to stop bad data from disrupting good business. They envisioned a world where everyone, from data engineers to business analysts, could share and use data they could implicitly trust. This vision materialized into a data quality and observability platform designed to be both powerful and accessible. At its core, Soda empowers data teams to embed data quality checks directly into their workflows, catching issues early and preventing them from propagating. The introduction of SodaCL, a human-readable language for defining data quality checks, was a pivotal step in democratizing data quality, allowing a broader range of users to participate in maintaining data integrity. The company's commitment to the open-source community, with the release of Soda Core, further fueled its growth and adoption, attracting a global community of users and contributors. Today, Soda is trusted by over 100 data-driven organizations, including major brands like HelloFresh and Lululemon, helping them to build a culture of data confidence and unlock the true potential of their data assets.