For all the hype around "big data"—or tech that crunches through massive amounts of emails, tweets, video and other files to find useful information—some startups aren't yet making tons of noise.
That's probably not going to be the case for much longer.
Startups that got funding a couple of years ago are starting to get some serious momentum. Others are still in stealth mode, busily putting the finishing touches on potentially game changing tech.
Google, Facebook, Amazon and other web giants have harnessed big data to solve some of their biggest tech challenges. Now many of these engineers are setting out on their own with startups.
Some are focused on analytics. Some are working on in-memory databases, which do all their work on data stored in memory instead of hard drives.
Others are casting their lot with NoSQL, a new kind of database that spreads processing and storage across multiple servers and storage systems.
And VCs are eagerly backing their efforts.
"What's interesting about big data is that it's going to be a formidable investment area for many years to come. It's not like in 18-24 months I'll say hey, the big data wave is over," Ping Li, general partner at VC firm Accel Partners, told us last February.
WibiData
Founded: 2010
Headquarters: San Francisco
What They Do: Sells tools that let retail and finance customers built their own big data apps, including mobile and Software-as-service apps.
Star Talent: Co-founder Christophe Bisciglia previously co-founded Cloudera, a well known Hadoop startup. Aaron Kimball, also a co-founder, was the first engineer hired at Cloudera.
Who's Backing Them: Has raised more than $20 million from NEA, Canaan Partners, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Cloudera CEO Michael Olson, and angel investors Ron Conway and David Lee.
Hadapt
Founded: 2011
Headquarters: Cambridge, Mass.
What They Do: Hadapt's Adaptive Analytical Platform combines SQL, the tech that traditional databases use, with Hadoop, a new tech that crunches that can analyzes massive amounts of data. The idea is to let customers use one system for their database and analytics work.
Star Talent: Daniel Abadi, chief scientist and co-founder, wrote a dissertation on column-store databases (a new type of database that performs better than traditional ones) while at MIT that led to the creation of Vertica, which HP acquired in 2011. Kamil Bajda–Pawlikowski, chief software architect, is also a co-founder.
Who's Backing Them: Has raised $17 million from Atlas Venture, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Norwest Venture Partners.
Sqrrl
Founded: 2012
Headquarters: Cambridge, Mass.
What They Do: Building a business around Apache Accumulo, an powerful open source NoSQL database developed by the National Security Agency with sophisticated security tech built in. Accumulo was derived from BigTable, a data storage tech that Google invented.
Star Talent: Adam Fuchs, co-founder and CTO, also co-founded Apache Accumulo.
Who's Backing Them: Raised $2 million from Atlas Venture and Matrix Partners.
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