Orchest Raises $3.5M to Simplify Data Pipeline Development

Orchest Secures $3.5 Million Seed Funding to Simplify Data Pipeline Development

Rick Lamers, CEO and co-founder of Orchest, describes himself and his team, alongside co-founder Yannick Perrenet, as passionate “data nerds” dedicated to crafting innovative data tools.

The company is currently focused on developing an open-source integrated development environment (IDE) specifically designed for data scientists.

Empowering Data Scientists with Autonomous Workflows

This IDE aims to empower data scientists to develop, refine, and deploy data pipelines independently, eliminating the need for constant reliance on infrastructure or engineering support teams.

On Friday, Orchest announced the successful completion of a $3.5 million seed funding round. This round was spearheaded by Gradient Ventures and Basis Set Ventures.

Additional investors included Seedcamp and Pete Soderling, founder of Data Council.

Addressing the Technological Challenges Faced by Data Scientists

Lamers explained to TechCrunch that data scientists often find themselves burdened by a complex technological landscape.

While possessing strong skills in mathematics, modeling, and data interpretation, they frequently lack extensive knowledge of cloud computing, containerization, and the intricacies of infrastructure management.

Orchest’s platform is designed to automate many of these technical aspects, allowing data scientists to concentrate on their core competencies – transforming initial concepts into deployed solutions within a unified environment.

From Open Source Project to Public Launch

Founded in 2020, Orchest initially began as an open-source project hosted on GitHub.

This was followed by a period of private beta testing with cloud-based hosting.

Today marks the official debut of the company’s first publicly available version.

Orchest operates on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, offering a fully managed hosting option and an enterprise version with expanded capabilities.

The Founders’ Journey

Lamers and Perrenet were both students at Delft University of Technology, pursuing degrees in computer science.

They made the decision to leave their studies to dedicate themselves fully to the development of Orchest.

Their early work on open-source software quickly gained recognition, attracting a substantial number of GitHub stars and subsequently, the attention of potential investors.

Early Traction and Adoption

Currently, Orchest boasts over 1,300 stars on GitHub.

More than 150 companies participated in the private beta program.

The open-source software has seen over 2,500 unique installations, including deployments within organizations such as Accenture and Georgetown University.

Investor Perspective

Chang Xu, a partner at Basis Set, first connected with Lamers and Perrenet in early 2020.

She identified them as “exceptional founders” and subsequently invested in the company’s pre-seed round in late 2020.

Filling a Gap in the Data Science Toolkit

Xu’s expertise lies in early-stage B2B infrastructure and developer tools.

She observed that while software engineers typically have access to a wide array of tools, data scientists often lack comparable resources.

Data scientists may become proficient with tools like Jupyter Notebooks or Google Colab during their education, but they often encounter challenges when applying these skills in real-world scenarios.

“Rick and Yannick highlighted the fact that data scientists struggle to translate their academic knowledge into practical applications within companies,” Xu stated. “Furthermore, many companies lack the resources to maintain dedicated engineering teams to support them.”

“Orchest empowers data scientists to independently access the tools they need, streamlining their workflow and increasing efficiency.”