Snowflake, well-known for managing data in the cloud within structured data warehouses and less structured data lakes, has announced the acquisition of Neeva, a search startup founded by two former Google employees. Neeva has been focusing on both consumer-based and enterprise search offerings. However, earlier this week, the company declared plans to cease consumer search development and concentrate solely on the enterprise sector.
In a recent press release, Snowflake revealed its decision to purchase the startup. Although the companies did not disclose the specifics of the deal, rumors of interest from Snowflake had been circulating before the official announcement.
In a blog post on Snowflake's website, Benoit Dageville, company co-founder and VP of products, talked about the compatibility between Snowflake and Neeva. Dageville emphasized that helping teams discover the right data points, assets, or insights is crucial for maximizing the value of data. One of the main reasons Snowflake decided to acquire Neeva was their generative AI technology in search.
Generative AI searches enable users to ask questions and interact with the search tool, significantly transforming the way people search. Neeva had been focusing on its stand-alone generative AI search app called Gist prior to its decision to concentrate on enterprise products. The founders believed they could apply the knowledge gained from Gist, including small models, size reduction, latency reduction, and cost-effective deployment, to their enterprise search offerings.
Although the dream of building a Google competitor may be over with the cancellation of their consumer search tool, Neeva's technology will live on within Snowflake's search solutions. Having raised over $77 million since its founding in 2019, Neeva has shown great potential as an ad-free search tool that addressed the privacy concerns prevalent in other consumer search offerings.
Now under the Snowflake umbrella, Neeva's founders bring a wealth of experience to help build AI search solutions on top of Snowflake's cloud data management platform. Rapid advancements in the no-code and low-code app development landscape, courtesy of platforms such as AppMaster.io have increasingly enabled businesses to quickly develop solutions optimizing data management in the cloud. Neeva's acquisition by Snowflake is likely to further boost these capabilities, connecting relevant data insights to businesses across various industries effectively and efficiently.
