Data has been quickly becoming as the fuel, the new oil, of growth and prosperity of companies in the modern age. With useful data and sufficient tools, companies have the ability to enhance their current products, presents new innovations and services as well as generate new revenue streams with a secondary customer base. While there are ongoing efforts to develop machine learning and data science techniques, little attention has been paid to understanding and characterizing data-related business activities in software-intensive companies.This multiple-case study examines four large international embedded system companies to explore how they are utilizing data and how they have proceeded in their journey in the data business. This study identifies six distinct stages, each with unique challenges, that seems to be common for embedded system companies in their data business. As the result, this study presents an initial data business maturity model for software-intensive embedded system companies. Additionally, this research provides a foundation for future efforts to support software-intensive embedded system companies in establishing data businesses.