US-based database technology provider Kinetica closed a $50m series A round yesterday that included Citi Ventures, the corporate venturing subsidiary of financial services firm Citigroup.
The round was co-led by venture capital firms Canvas Ventures and Meritech Capital Partners, while Ray Lane, the managing partner of VC firm GreatPoint Ventures, also participated, as an angel investor.
Kinetica has developed a relational database that relies on graphics processing units (GPUs) to speed up queries. A GPU operates alongside a central processing unit to accelerate applications and is particularly well suited to performing repeated, similar instructions in parallel on a large scale.
The technology is capable of evaluating billions of data signals to identify relevant information. It was purpose-built in 2009 for the US Army Intelligence and Security Command and the National Security Agency to facilitate the real-time tracking and capturing of terrorists.
The company has since expanded its client base to include corporates such as pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline, logistics firm US Postal Service and an unnamed global retailer.
The series A capital will support the opening of several offices across the globe and will drive recruitment across the engineering, sales and marketing teams. Gary Little, partner at Canvas, and Meritech partner Paul Madera will join Kinetica’s board of directors.
Kinetica has now raised a total of $63m altogether. Ray Lane previously led a $6m round it closed in September 2016, following an earlier $7m investment in April the same year.