This evening Tableau Software announced that it has secured $10 million in series B funding from New Enterprise Associates, Inc. (NEA). NEA originally invested $5 million in Tableau Software back in 2004.

Today's businesses are swimming in data and Tableau makes software products that anyone of any skill level can use - simply point Tableau to a database or spreadsheet and start exploring in a easy and visual way. My explanation certainly doesn't do the software justice - check out this product tour video to see Tableau in action.

Tableau is growing exponentially and was recently named one of the Top 50 fastest growing software companies in the United States on the Inc. 5,000 list. “Consolidation in the business intelligence industry is creating new opportunities for a disruptive company like Tableau to rapidly innovate,” said Forest Baskett, general partner at NEA. “The company has already established market leadership, and NEA is pleased to continue partnering with Tableau’s talented management team as they begin this next phase of growth.” Baskett led NEA’s initial investment in Tableau in 2004. In conjunction with this round of financing, he will join the company’s board of directors.

I had a chance to chat with Tableau CEO Christian Chabot about the funding and what he was very proud of the fact that NEA returned to the table with the series B money. Chabot views it as a testament to Tableau's success and a vote of confidence in their vision to deliver visual analytics to anyone who uses data. Chabot believes that databases and spreadsheets are to hard to use and even jokes that he has "an engineering degree and can't figure our MS Access".

Already profitable, Tableau will use this funding to expand its development team and accelerate the introduction of new and innovative features of its data visualization and analytics products. This investment will also fund the development of new sales territories and the expansion of the company’s channel presence, particularly in the government and international sectors and with value added resellers.

Tableau has more than 10,000 users worldwide from thousands of companies, including: Google, AOL, Barclays Global, HP, Microsoft, Virgin Entertainment Group and Yale University.