“Big data” startups are experiencing fast-growth and are getting funded on an international scale, a sure sign that it’s more than just a fleeting Silicon Valley trend.

Coveo, the Quebec-based big data analytics company, has received a massive $18 million from local growth equity firm, Tandem Expansion Fund. It is best known for its recently-launched Coveo for Salesforce product, a cloud-based application which delivers quantitative insights about customer interactions. The app works by pushing relevant real-time information to sales and marketing teams, whether its an account, a lead, or new opportunity.

The company will use the funding to build out its sales and marketing team, as it anticipates “hyper-growth” in 2013, according to a press release. It anticipates that it will be “operating at or close to profitability” in 2013.

“”Companies are struggling mightily with big, fragmented data, and are recognizing the need for powerful information access and consolidation technologies like never before,” said Louis Têtu, the company’s Chairman and CEO in a statement.

Coveo is one of a growing number of startups that claim to pull together large volumes of relevant public data from sources like Facebook and Twitter, and information contained within a company’s firewall. The idea is that this data is potentially valuable, and can be used to drive business strategy.

This news comes the week after ClearStoryData pulled in an impressive first round of funding, and Hadoop-based Cloudera nabbed $65 million in its fifth round.

All major existing investors also participated in the round, including BDC Venture Capital, Propulsion Ventures SEC and Fonds de solidarité FTQ. This round of funding brings the company’s total investments to $34.7 million.

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