CIA-backed Palantir Technologies raises $107.5 million

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Palantir Technologies, the data-mining company that is partly backed by the Central Intelligence Agency, has raised another $107.5 million, according to a filing.

The funding round, which brings the total raised by the company to over $800 million, values the company at more than $9 billion, according to a person familiar with the situation.

Clients such as the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the CIA, along with corporate customers such as banks, use Palantir software to piece together information on terrorist plots, financial frauds and the like.

Palantir's chief executive, Alex Karp, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Palo Alto., California-based start-up has drawn attention because of its Prism software product, which has the same name as an NSA program that monitors emails and other communications of ordinary people on a mass scale. Palantir has said its product is separate from the NSA program.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley & Co. earned a $7 million commission on the funding round, according to the filing, which was made on Tuesday at the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Palantir was founded in 2004 by a team including Peter Thiel, the investor and PayPal co-founder, and Karp. The "seeing stones" in J.R. Tolkien's novel "The Lord of the Rings" inspired its name.

Its last funding round, of $196.5 million, was in September. Backers include Thiel's Founders Fund and the CIA's venture arm, In-Q-Tel.

The company is one of many with outsized valuations in Silicon Valley. Snapchat, a photo-sharing service, recently turned down a $3 billion acquisition offer from Facebook. Pinterest, the online bulletin board, was valued at $3.8 billion in its last funding round.