AAA Starburst dazzles Salesforce in $100m series C

Starburst dazzles Salesforce in $100m series C

US-based data query software provider Starburst received $100m on Wednesday in a series C round featuring Salesforce Ventures, the corporate venturing arm of enterprise software publisher Salesforce.

Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz led the round, with participation by hedge fund manager Coatue and VC firm Index Ventures. The deal valued the company at $1.2bn.

Founded in 2017, Starburst has developed a cloud-based software product called Trino which enables users to run customised analytics queries on data from multiple sources from any device.

The product is designed to accelerate enterprise data queries by removing the need to first aggregate different sources into a single storage location.

Starburst’s software is based on an open-source data engine called Presto developed at social media network Facebook, and Presto’s creators are all employed by the startup’s development team.

Salesforce Ventures’ investment is aimed at supporting its existing multi-source data visualisation tool, Tableau. Francois Ajenstat, chief product officer for Tableau, said: “Empowering people with timely, trustworthy information that can be easily analysed has never been more important as organisations look to adapt and evolve with a culture rooted in data.

“Backed by an incredible team and vision, Starburst has set itself apart with best-in-class solutions that will help even more people unlock the power of data. We are excited to partner closely with Starburst and look forward to watching their continued success unfold.”

Index Ventures had led a $22m series A round for Starburst in late 2019 before returning for a series B led by Coatue in June 2020.

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