Database maintenance skills, essential to any AI pipeline, are in demand as AI demand rises. Databases contain the data used to train, run, and fine-tune AI systems, and efficient data management can ease enterprise AI adoption.
Tembo, a firm that enables developers deploy Postgres, the open source database system, to cloud and local environments, has benefited from the database boom. Tembo raised $14 million on Monday from GreatPoint Ventures, Venrock, Grand Ventures, Wireframe Ventures, Defined VC, and Cintrifuse Capital.
Tembo founder and CEO Ry Walker told TechCrunch, “We’re harnessing the power of Postgres for everyone to use.” “With Tembo, enterprises can reduce costs by reducing databases and increase efficiency by simplifying data pipelines.”
Walker interrupted his computer science studies at Cincinnati to found Sharkbytes, an online agency, in the 1990s. After selling his initial startup, Walker launched Differential, a venture studio that spun off Astronomer, an open-source data engineering pipeline.
Walker discovered his love for early-stage companies after Astronomer’s launch. So he founded Tembo. “After building Astronomer and working on open source passion projects, I realized our model could be applied to the database industry with even more impact,” he stated.
Tembo offers managed, metered Postgres, and self-hosted tools to set up and maintain Postgres databases. Customers can create databases with auto-scaling and auto-tuning for self-maintenance.
Tembo recently unveiled Machine Learning Stack, which lets developers use processes and databases to construct and deploy AI models, including Tembo’s open generative AI models.
“The astronomical increase in data has caused a massive data sprawl that is inefficient and extremely expensive,” Walker added. “With Tembo, enterprises can reduce costs by reducing databases and increase efficiency by simplifying data pipelines.”
Walker said Cincinnati-based Tembo will focus on product development, hiring, and advertising with $20 million in cash and 25 employees. It will be difficult to beat competitors like Postgres developer Mike Stonebraker’s new business, DBOS. Walker says Tembo can do it.
“We’re reaching a critical inflection point to help enterprises with their strategy by leveraging Postgres for all their growing data capture and storage needs,” Walker added. Growing 15% annually, the worldwide database market is expected to reach $200 billion by 2027. Over the next decade, this is just the beginning. Our goal is as bold as the opportunity: providing Postgres power to everyone.”