Supabase Raises $30M to Fuel Open Source Backend-as-a-Service
Supabase Secures $30 Million in Series A Funding
Supabase, a rapidly growing backend-as-a-service platform, has recently announced the successful completion of a $30 million Series A funding round.
An Open-Source Alternative
Frequently positioned as an open-source alternative to Google’s Firebase, Supabase offers a compelling solution for developers familiar with the Firebase ecosystem.
For those unfamiliar, Supabase provides a comprehensive suite of tools designed to accelerate project development by automating numerous backend processes and configurations.
Core Features and Functionality
Upon project creation, Supabase automatically provisions a Postgres database.
It also delivers a dynamically evolving API for database interaction, complete with automatic documentation. Furthermore, it includes a robust user authentication system, integrating seamlessly with popular login providers like Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Apple.
Additional Capabilities
The platform extends its functionality with a storage system for managing assets such as images and videos.
A user-friendly interface is provided for comprehensive oversight and management of all aspects of the backend infrastructure. This significantly reduces the workload associated with building modern applications and services.
Pricing Structure
Supabase is freely available for hobby projects and experimentation.
As project requirements grow, particularly concerning database size or data backup needs, pricing scales from $25 per project per month. Self-deployment is also an option, though it currently lacks the convenience of the integrated management UI.
Recent Funding and Investor Details
This Series A round follows a $6 million raise announced in December 2020, demonstrating rapid growth and investor confidence.
The funding was led primarily by Coatue, with participation from notable angel investors including Tom Preston-Werner (GitHub co-founder), Alex Solomon (PagerDuty co-founder), and Solomon Hykes (Docker co-founder).
Team Growth and Remote-First Approach
Paul Copplestone, co-founder of Supabase, reports that the team has expanded to 24 members, geographically distributed across the globe.
The company adopted a remote-first approach from its inception, coinciding with the onset of the pandemic.
Leveraging Open-Source Contributions
A key strategy involves hiring individuals already actively contributing to the underlying tools that power Supabase.
Copplestone explains, “We employ lead maintainers of several of those tools and open source contributors, regardless of their location.”
Y Combinator and Early Recognition
Supabase participated in Y Combinator’s Summer 2020 class, which was the accelerator’s first fully remote cohort.
Despite the large size of the S20 batch—over 200 companies—Supabase quickly gained recognition and generated significant buzz within the Y Combinator community.
