Software and analytics maker Palantir today reported 49% revenue growth for its first quarter of 2021.

Co-Founded by Peter Thiel, Palantir has built its business on lucrative government deals for their data analytics software. The company revealed that its government revenue hit $208 million for the period. However, they also improved their commercial returns with impressive growth across the United States of $133 million.

Founded in 2003 by PayPal’s Thiel, Palantir developed their software and analytics offerings through computer scientists and analysts from the intelligence agencies over three years. Their proposal being intelligence augmentation, the use of human analysts to explore data from many sources in an attempt utilize artificial intelligence effectively.

Last year, during the onset of the covid-19 pandemic, they were one of four large technology companies working with the NHS to track and contain the virus, among other exploits to combat the virus. Palantir was awarded a $44.4 million contract by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in December 2020.

This rounded off a year in which the company had also gone public, with its share price opening at $10 in September 2020 and rising as high as $19.89 today.

Significant crypto embrace

Palantir revealed, alongside their first quarter results, that they would now be accepting bitcoin as a form of payment from their clients. This move is in keeping with Peter Thiel’s other companies, PayPal and Venmo, who also embraced cryptocurrency payments.

Both companies allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies through their applications and PayPal is even exploring the launce of a stablecoin. During this morning’s earnings call, they even said that the possibility of adding bitcoin to their balance sheet was, “definitely on the table.”