StreamSets is a pioneer in data integration for the modern data stack, enabling customers to easily and quickly move data between on-premise applications, cloud data streams and other data stores.
Background:
Battery first got to know Streamsets’ founders, Girish Pancha and Arvind Prabhakar, shortly after the two founded the company in 2014. Girish was a veteran of first-generation data giant Informatica, while Arvind had experience at both Informatica and Cloudera, a company in which Battery General Partner Dharmesh Thakker had previously invested. Girish and Arvind started the company because they felt large enterprises weren’t being adequately served by existing data-integration/middleware products; organizations were still struggling to deal with 1) ever-increasing amounts of data to parse, and 2) managing data sprawl (or “drift”) across a number of internal silos, including large applications as well as more-niche data repositories like devices, logs and sensors. This made data integration extremely difficult.
Streamsets solved these problems by making open-source software to ingest data directly from these repositories and then transforming it, in real-time, so it was ready for analysis. The company’s roadmap and model fit well into Battery’s existing investment thesis about the broader, increasing need for new types of data technology at companies across industries.
Battery’s Impact:
Battery first invested in Streamsets’ Series A round in late 2015. The company’s product was not yet generally available, and the team had only a handful of beta customers. Battery helped the company grow and scale in a number of ways, including:
- Helped recruit several C-level executives, including the president and CRO, who played a critical role in efficient growth.
- Introduced company to several executive decision makers at Fortune 2000 organizations
- Facilitated strategic relationship with cloud providers and strategic partners during the company’s growth journey.
Outcome:
Streamsets was acquired by Germany’s Software AG for roughly $580 million in 2022.
The presented case-study investment was made in particular economic and market conditions. There can be no assurance that Battery Venture would elect, or be able, to exploit similar opportunities in a similar manner under similar or different economic and market conditions. More generally, there can be no assurances that the Battery vehicles will have comparable investment opportunities in the future. No assumptions should be made that any investments identified above were profitable. It should not be assumed that recommendations made in the future will be profitable or comparable to the portfolio company described in this case study. For a full list of all Battery Ventures investments, please click here.
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