QuestDB Raises $12M Series A - Hosted Version on the Horizon

QuestDB Secures $12 Million in Series A Funding

QuestDB, the company behind the high-performance open source time series database, has announced a $12 million Series A funding round. The investment comes from 468 Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, and a group of industry experts, including Alexis Ohanian.

This latest funding brings the total raised by the company to $14.3 million, building upon the $2.3 million seed round announced last July.

Building Community and Expanding Offerings

Since its participation in the Y Combinator summer 2020 cohort, QuestDB has focused on fostering a strong community around its open source project.

Simultaneously, the team has been developing an enterprise version and a hosted solution, anticipated to launch before the year's end.

Addressing Customer Needs for Simplified Management

Customers currently have the option to deploy the enterprise version on their preferred cloud infrastructure and manage it independently.

However, the company has received significant feedback requesting a more streamlined experience.

“Many organizations prefer to avoid the complexities of self-hosting and desire the database provider to handle operational aspects,” explained co-founder and CEO Nicolas Hourcard.

Performance and Cost Optimization

The QuestDB database is engineered for exceptional speed.

This performance allows companies to potentially reduce their server infrastructure, offsetting speed limitations they may have previously experienced with other database solutions.

Thriving Open Source Community

The open source project boasts a vibrant community, evidenced by a Slack channel with over 900 developers.

More than 70 contributors have actively participated in the project’s development.

Furthermore, the founders established a group for Y Combinator alumni building open source businesses, currently comprising 100 members.

This group convenes regularly to discuss business model challenges and learn from successful open source entrepreneurs.

Enterprise Features and Growth

While the company has not disclosed the exact number of enterprise customers, they have highlighted the enhanced features of the commercial product.

These include greater deployment flexibility and simplified operation at scale.

Team Expansion and Diversity

QuestDB currently employs 15 individuals and intends to double its workforce within the next six months, contingent on continued progress.

Hourcard emphasizes the company’s commitment to building a diverse team, leveraging its open source and fully remote structure.

“We aim to remove geographical and background limitations, believing that diversity will enrich our company culture,” he stated.

Leveraging Open Source Contributions

The company actively seeks talent through open source contributions.

Identifying and recruiting developers who demonstrate expertise and enthusiasm for the product through their contributions is a key strategy.

“Open source provides a valuable avenue for connecting with developers from diverse backgrounds, and often leads us to identify potential team members based on their significant contributions,” Hourcard added.