Despite frequent discussion of “big data” within the enterprise sector, the reality for many organizations is that their data is often highly dispersed, residing in various locations and across different systems. This fragmentation presents a substantial obstacle to effectively analyzing and utilizing data in a unified manner.

A leading startup addressing this challenge has recently announced a significant funding round, demonstrating the demand for its solutions and its progress to date.

SingleStore, a provider of a SQL-based platform designed to help businesses manage, process, and leverage data existing in isolated environments across both cloud and on-premise infrastructures – a crucial step for powering applications in areas like risk management, fraud detection, customer experience, real-time reporting, rapid dashboard creation, data warehouse enhancement, data warehouse modernization, and accelerated insights – has secured $80 million in Series E funding. This investment includes participation from both new and existing investors.

Insight Partners spearheaded the funding round, with additional investment from Dell Technologies Capital and Hercules Capital. Existing backers Accel, Anchorage, Glynn Capital, GV (formerly Google Ventures), and Rev IV also contributed to this round.

In conjunction with the funding, SingleStore is officially announcing a new partnership with analytics leader SAS. According to CEO Raj Verma, the two companies have already been collaborating, resulting in “remarkable adoption” of their combined offerings.

Verma further stated that the funding resulted from unsolicited interest and increases the company’s total available capital to $140 million. This provides the startup with resources to invest in areas such as talent acquisition, research and development, and business expansion, and potentially explore mergers and acquisitions in the current market consolidation environment.

Verma indicated that the valuation represents a substantial increase compared to the Series D round in 2018, although the specific figure was not disclosed. PitchBook data indicates a post-money valuation of $270 million at that time.

The company was previously known as MemSQL when last discussed in May of this year. The rebranding to SingleStore, however, was a planned initiative, as Verma explained. He noted that he began considering a name change shortly after joining the company in 2019 (approximately 16 months ago).

“The previous name didn’t easily resonate, and we realized it no longer accurately reflected our capabilities. It confined us to a limited perception of our offerings, leading prospects to associate us solely with in-memory and SQL technologies. While we had no issues with SQL, we had long surpassed the limitations of in-memory solutions, which now account for only 5% of our revenue.”

He also highlighted the common concerns surrounding in-memory database implementations, particularly their potential cost. “This often created an impression of high total cost of ownership, which was inaccurate. Typically, our solutions are ⅕-⅛ the cost of comparable products,” he said. “We were hindering our ability to effectively engage with potential customers and buyers.”

The company selected the name SingleStore because it embodies the core concept behind its unique technology. “We aimed for a name that could function as a verb. Our vision is that, in the future, when large enterprises are asked about their data management practices, they will say they ‘SingleStore It!’” Verma explained. “Our ultimate goal is to handle all types of data without requiring workload segmentation.”

This endeavor takes place within an increasingly competitive landscape. Other companies offering tools for managing and analyzing large datasets include Amazon, Microsoft, Snowflake, PostgreSQL, MySQL, and others.

SingleStore has not disclosed specific growth metrics but reports serving thousands of enterprise clients. Recent customers include GE, IEX Cloud, Go Guardian, Palo Alto Networks, EOG Resources, SiriusXM + Pandora, with partnerships established with Infosys, HCL, and NextGen.

“As industries increasingly rely on software for transformation, the demand for predictive applications powered by fast, scalable, and cloud-native database systems like SingleStore’s will continue to accelerate,” stated Lonne Jaffe, managing director at Insight Partners. “Insight Partners has a 25-year history of supporting rapidly scaling transformational software companies, and we are excited to collaborate with Raj and his team as they deliver SingleStore’s differentiated technology to customers and partners globally.”

“SAS is dedicated to running some of the most complex and sophisticated machine learning workloads across industries, empowering organizations to make informed decisions. SAS continues to advance its AI and analytics capabilities, and we collaborate with companies like SingleStore that share our commitment to exploring how data and analytics can revolutionize businesses and impact the world,” added Oliver Schabenberger, COO and CTO at SAS. “Our engineering teams are integrating SingleStore’s scalable SQL-based database platform with the massively parallel analytics engine SAS Viya. We are pleased to partner with SingleStore to enhance performance, reduce costs, and enable our customers to remain at the forefront of analytics and decision-making.”