Highlights:

  • Tembo strives to alleviate Postgres deployment through virtual runtime experience, access to the biggest Postgres ecosystem, and one-click migrations.
  • Tembo stated that it plans to finance developer engagement, product development, advertising, and new jobs with the additional funds.

Tembo Data Systems Inc. raised USD 14 million in a Series A funding round. The PostgreSQL managed service operator has brought its total financing to USD 20.5 million.

The firm describes itself as developer-focused, aiming to make managing and deploying PostgreSQL and its more than 200 extensions easier. Tembo’s approach is to use a package manager and registry it developed called Trunk to make as many extensions as feasibly available.

Last December, Tembo completed a seed funding round. Ry Walker, the Founder of the Cincinnati-based business, had raised over USD 280 million for a startup doing data orchestration under the name of Astronomer Inc. To combat what he saw as lock-in tactics employed by other PostgreSQL managed services, which he said limited developer options and freedom for continuous integration—a crucial component of the DevOps agile development methodology—he founded Tembo.

PostgreSQL is one of the most popular database management systems. Last year, Stack Overflow Internet Services Inc.’s yearly poll mentioned it as the most sought-after, acclaimed, and well-liked database. It is ranked fourth among DBMSs by SolidIT Consulting & Software Development GmbH’s DB-Engines website.

However, PostgreSQL is tedious, especially when extensions are considered, stated Walker a year ago. “To create a self-managed cluster of Postgres clusters, [database administrators] have to consider infrastructure, environment, security, data management, backups, and workload-specific tuning. Further, maintaining and scaling Postgres involves meeting high availability requirements, managing data storage, updating schemas, optimizing query performance, and managing failover protection and caching,” added Walker.

According to the business, the typical enterprise employs seven separate database suppliers, which leads to sprawl and complexity. Additionally, it chastised managed service providers for their allegedly inadequate assistance, claiming they would prefer to offer their services through more expensive proprietary databases.

Tembo strives to alleviate Postgres deployment through virtual runtime experience, access to the biggest Postgres ecosystem, and one-click migrations. Walker wrote, “Developers can control the data model lifecycle and deploy to multiple zones and clouds. Advanced options will include autoscaling, hybrid transactional and analytical processing, and edge caching.” Stacks, a feature, allows developers to develop and deploy custom-built configurations of PostgreSQL and extensions immediately.

Tembo stated that it plans to finance developer engagement, product development, advertising, and new jobs with the additional funds.

“In the same way that Oracle transformed databases and the cloud, Tembo is poised to change our understanding of what Postgres can do,” said Ray Lane, Managing Partner of GreatPoint Ventures. Previously, Lane also presided over database giant Oracle Corp.

In addition to Venrock Management, Wireframe Management, Grand Ventures, Cintrifuse Early Stage Capital Fund, Defined Capital, and angel investors, GreatPoint Ventures led the investment.