Splice Machine Secures $4M in Funding to Develop the Splice SQL Engine™ for Big Data Apps

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Splice Machine, the developer of the first SQL-compliant database designed for Big Data applications, announced today that it has raised $4 million in Series A funding from Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV). With the funding, Splice Machine will continue the development of the Splice SQL Engine™ with a veteran software development team led by co-founder and CEO, Monte Zweben.

The explosion of data being generated by apps, sites, devices and users has overwhelmed traditional Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMSs). In response, many companies have turned to Big Data or NoSQL solutions that are highly scalable on commodity hardware. However, these databases come at a big cost – they have very limited SQL support, often causing rewrites of existing apps or Business Intelligence (BI) reports.

Built on the proven Hadoop stack, the Splice SQL Engine enables application developers to build hyper-personalized web, mobile and social applications that truly scale while leveraging the ubiquity of SQL tools and skill sets in the marketplace. The Splice SQL Engine also scales to handle business intelligence and analysis, and works turnkey with tools like MicroStrategy® and Tableau®.

"Splice Machine's experienced team and unique approach situate them in the center of the Big Data universe," said Bill Ericson, General Partner at MDV. "We're extremely excited about Splice Machine's path forward as Monte and his team continue to develop their innovative solution to better serve those who seek a cost-effective, high-performance database to power their applications."

"The NoSQL community threw out the baby with the bath water. They got it right with flexible schemas and distributed, auto-sharded architectures, but it was a mistake to discard SQL," said Zweben. "The Splice SQL Engine enables companies to get the cost-effective scalability, flexibility and availability their Big Data, mobile and web applications require – while capitalizing on the prevalence of the proven SQL tools and experts that are ubiquitous in the industry."

A technology industry veteran, Zweben's early career was spent with the NASA Ames Research Center as the Deputy Branch Chief of the Artificial Intelligence Branch, where he won the prestigious Space Act Award for his work on the Space Shuttle program. Zweben then founded and was the Chairman and CEO of Red Pepper Software, a leading supply chain optimization company, which merged in 1996 with PeopleSoft, where he was VP and General Manager, Manufacturing Business Unit. In 1998, Zweben was the founder and CEO of Blue Martini Software – the leader in e-commerce and multi-channel systems for retailers. Blue Martini went public on NASDAQ in one of the most successful IPOs of 2000, and is now part of Red Prairie. Following Blue Martini, Zweben was the chairman of SeeSaw Networks, a digital, place-based media company, and is the chairman of Clio Music, an advanced music research and development company. He is also the co-author of Intelligent Scheduling and has published articles in the Harvard Business Review and various computer science journals and conference proceedings.

Growing at a rapid pace, the Splice Machine team features software industry veterans and development experts including Chief Technology Officer, John Leach; Vice President of Products and Operations, Gene Davis; Vice President of Product Management, Rich Reimer; and Senior Software Architect, Jessie Zhang.

About Splice Machine
Based in San Francisco, Splice Machine provides the first SQL-compliant database designed for Big Data applications. The Splice SQL Engine™ provides all the benefits of NoSQL databases such as auto-sharding, scalability, fault tolerance and high availability, while retaining the strengths of the industry standard – SQL. It optimizes complex queries to power real-time Big Data apps and enable interactive analytics without rewriting existing SQL-based apps and front-end BI tools such as MicroStrategy® and Tableau®. For more information on Splice Machine, please visit www.splicemachine.com.

SOURCE Splice Machine