Vinoth Chandar’s Post

Congrats Vinoth Chandar. It's great to see real open innovation being rewarded. AI early funding rounds capture the headlines, but Lakehouses are quietly revolutionizing the Big Data that fuels them. The term “Big Data” was popularized in the Hadoop era, primarily supporting unstructured content. Since then, object storage has replaced file systems for two key reasons: Cost-efficiency from the separation of compute and storage. Superior support for both unstructured and structured data. EDW platforms with isolated storage, like Redshift, merely shift costs from on-premises to the cloud [pun intended]. In contrast, Lakehouses, built on open table formats, lower costs and disrupt vendor lock-in. This trend is evident with Databricks' acquisition of Tabular for an estimated $2-$3 billion and Onehouse's impressive $35 million Series B raise. More announcements in this space are sure to follow. Astute investors recognize that the most impressive engine is inert without a fuel source. Similarly, data infrastructure is crucial for AI. From the boardroom to operations and the sales floor, data is as indispensable as the powerful generative AI algorithms and models that are transforming industries. Forward-thinking VCs, such as Craft Ventures, are not only investing in high-profile areas like AI but also recognize that robust data infrastructure is essential for harnessing the full potential of AI and analytics.

Data Lakehouse Architecture: Transforming Data Analytics in 2024 🚀 The Data Lakehouse is revolutionizing the way organizations manage, analyze, and derive insights from data. By unifying the capabilities of data lakes and data warehouses, the lakehouse architecture allows for seamless handling of structured and unstructured data. This ensures high-performance analytics and cost-effective storage—all on a single platform. 🔑 Key Benefits: Scalability: Handle vast amounts of diverse data with ease. Flexibility: Integrate machine learning and real-time analytics natively. Governance: Role-based access ensures security and compliance across the board. 🌟 Who’s Using Lakehouses? Netflix: For personalized recommendations and real-time user engagement. Databricks: Powers innovation in data intelligence and generative AI solutions. Google: Enhances analytics with tools like BigQuery and Vertex AI. Amazon: Utilizes Redshift Spectrum for querying data at scale. IBM: Empowers hybrid cloud analytics through Watsonx. At Silicon Tech Solutions, we use cutting-edge technologies like the Data Lakehouse to build scalable, insightful applications tailored for businesses. Ready to harness the power of unified data architecture? Let’s innovate together. 💡 Learn more about how we can help: https://lnkd.in/gSUnXEXP #DataLakehouse #BigData #CloudComputing #MachineLearning #ArtificialIntelligence #DataManagement #RealTimeAnalytics #DataArchitecture #Innovation #SoftwareEngineering #TechSolutions #SiliconTechSolutions

Snowflake users in the #RestaurantIndustry -- BIG NEWS! SignalFlare.ai (by Extropy360) was announced as a Top 10 Finalist for a $500K #startup investment from Snowflake. Why does this matter? Gartner said in 2022 that #DecisionIntelligence was on the rise; in 2024 it was listed as a Top 10 business trend -- and here we are - a finalist out of hundreds of submissions! The customers whom we work with have seen our unique approach to data and the results we deliver in strategic #Pricing, #Promotions and #TargetedMarketing speak for themselves. Snowflake enables high impact {intelligent} decision making at scale -- and in speed! Science > Speed. But now you can have both.

🚀 'Snowflake snaps up data management company Datavolo' 🌟 Your next game-changer is here! 🌱 Calling all investors and founders: Dive into actionable insights, groundbreaking ideas, and strategies to take your journey to the next level. 👉 Read it now: https://lnkd.in/gxUtc_KU ✨ Cloud giant Snowflake has agreed to acquire Datavolo, a data pipeline management company, for an undisclosed sum. Snowflake unveiled the deal at the close of the market bell on Wednesday, when it also announced its Q3 2025 earnings. The purchase hasn’t yet closed, and it’s subject to customary closing conditions, Snowflake noted in a release. […] Don’t miss out on this must-read for leveling up in the world of startups and investment. Let’s innovate, grow, and succeed together! #Leadership #Innovation #Startups #Entrepreneurship #Founders #Investors #Growth #Strategy #Success

🚀 Big things ahead for Kurrent (formerly Event Store) as we close out 2024 and charge into 2025 with $12M in funding led by Crane Venture Partners! This milestone reflects not just the incredible momentum we’ve built, but also the game-changing potential of our approach to event-driven architecture. 💡 Here’s my favorite snippet from Crane's announcement blog that perfectly captures why I decided to join this journey: "We have been investing in data infrastructure for nearly a decade. We’ve watched the “modern data stack” grow old in the tooth. Enterprises are spending millions to make uncountable copies of the same piece of information, manipulating and modifying it, moving it back and forth from one system to another, paying a tax to every vendor that touches it. Kurrent represents a rethinking of the data stack—starting with bringing together the capabilities of a world-class operational database with streaming data services into an event-native data platform." Excited for what’s next and proud to be part of a team that’s reshaping how the world thinks about events, data streaming, and their relationship with their platforms!

Tabular's $2B Valuation: A Wake-Up Call for the Data Industry The recent acquisition of Tabular by Databricks for a staggering $2 billion, based on a reportedly $1 million ARR, is a powerful testament to the immense value of data management innovation. This deal sends shockwaves through the industry, highlighting the potential rewards for those who can master the complexities of data engineering. While this is undoubtedly a win for Tabular's founders, it also raises questions about Snowflake's strategic missteps. As a dominant player in the data cloud space, Snowflake's inability to secure Tabular is a surprising oversight. This acquisition underscores the importance of agility and adaptability in a rapidly evolving market. For aspiring startup founders, this deal is a beacon of hope. It demonstrates that with the right vision, team, and execution, even the most ambitious valuations are attainable. The data landscape is ripe with opportunities, and those who can deliver innovative solutions are poised to reap significant rewards. #dataengineering #startup #acquisition #databricks #tabular #snowflake #cloudcomputing #entrepreneurship

Snowflake Summit has brought a lot of clarity to me. Conversations with accomplished and seasoned professionals in the data space like Ben Castleton have really solidified our confidence in our mission and the problems we're trying to solve at Kater.ai (YC W24). Having Ben on our side feels like a superpower.

January 2022, we got a cold email from Event Store, the team behind EventStoreDB. I've been a data infra adjacent nerd for some decades now, so EDA and event sourcing weren't exactly new ideas. But I'd never seen anyone so purely pursuing it in an OSS + commercial database product that was actually being used (and paid for) at scale for real revenue generating applications. After much much digging and discussing and spending time with users and customers, Event Store became our first and only investment off a cold inbound email. The company is now called Kurrent (formerly Event Store), led by Kirk Dunn who a lot of you are gonna remember from Cloudera, and announced $12 million in new funding led by us here at Crane Venture Partners along with our friends Creandum, Data Tech Fund, Cocoa 🍫, Irregular Expressions, and Common Magic. 🤝🏽 🥳 🚀 Why have we gotten so thoroughly behind Kurrent? Because the "modern data stack" is starting to feel like a heavyweight toll collection system where the same bit of data gets copied, transfigured, moved, and stored a million times with a million vendors each taking a bit of your money at every touch. There's a better way. The future of data infrastructure is going to be SIMPLER. We're building an opinionated position with companies like Axiom, Gable, Kurrent (formerly Event Store), Tinybird, and some yet to be announced. Stay tuned. 😄 #startups #datainfrastructure #database #startup #investing #vc #venturecapital #moderndatastack

What really drove Databricks 10 billion in funding at a $62 billion valuation? Considering this was breaking records even amid high demand for AI infrastructure. In short, the company pivoted into data warehousing in 2020, becoming a major Snowflake competitor, and successfully so, but there is even more to it in its AI play. In fact, with $3 billion projected revenue, Databricks now powers enterprise data critical for AI models, solidifying its industry leadership. Yet more in detail to understand such valuation: • Record-Breaking Funding: Databricks raised $10 billion in funding, achieving a $62 billion valuation, surpassing OpenAI’s $6.6 billion round in October. • Demand Surge: High institutional demand caused the valuation to rise from $60 billion to $62 billion within days. • Investor Participation: Led by Thrive and existing investors like Insight Partners, which leveraged its Public Equities fund to co-lead. • Non-Dilutive Offer: Included a secondary tender offer allowing employees and early investors to sell shares while issuing new preferred shares for investors. • Strategic Pivot: Despite initial skepticism, CEO Ali Ghodsi successfully entered the data warehousing market in 2020 with Databricks SQL, becoming a strong competitor to Snowflake. • AI Relevance: Databricks now provides high-quality enterprise data critical for training large language models (LLMs), strengthening its position in AI infrastructure. • Revenue Growth: The company projects a $3 billion annual revenue run rate, with Databricks SQL growing 150% year-over-year to a $600 million revenue run rate. • Market Position: Positioned as a generational company for data, AI, and machine learning infrastructure, making it a hot target for investors amid the IPO market freeze. https://lnkd.in/dGTmUmdS

I am thrilled to announce that RTP Global is leading Conduktor's $30 million Series B, alongside Accel, M12, Microsoft's Venture Fund, and Ansa Capital! As Kafka adoption skyrockets and the technology matures, it's now become table stakes for all enterprises to build products using real-time data. But let's face it—managing Kafka can be a huge pain. Enter Conduktor. They're tackling the management challenges head-on, enabling the democratisation of Kafka within organisations. This means more teams can easily build real-time products, driving innovation and new revenue opportunities across the board. We immediately knew the team were building something special when the engineering team loved the product, just as much as the admins + management trying to wrangle their infra. Hearing how Conduktor helped customers discover entirely new product lines and solve huge inefficiencies made the investment a no-brainer. A big shout-out to Nicolas Orban, Stéphane Derosiaux, and the entire Conduktor team as they continue to scale. We're thrilled to be part of this journey alongside Andrei Brasoveanu, James Wu and Allan Jean-Baptiste (as well as huge thanks to Tom Sheridan and Finn Murphy for all their help along the way). Link to TechCrunch article here https://lnkd.in/dg4dFhXQ Check out their https://lnkd.in/dg2e4nyz to join the rocket ship.