SurrealDB Secures $6M to Expand Its Database-as-a-Service Platform and Commercialize Cloud Offering

Founders Tobie Morgan Hitchcock and Jaime Hitchcock have recently raised $6 million in seed funding for their database-as-a-service platform, SurrealDB. The funding round was led by FirstMark, with a goal to commercialize SurrealDB’s cloud offering and expand the team.

The managed database services sphere is ever-expanding, with influential players like SingleStore and EdgeDB recently raising significant funds. In this competitive landscape, SurrealDB has experienced growth due to increased adoption of fully managed, cloud-based database services. A MariaDB survey revealed that 61% of respondents were already fully migrated or working towards a complete database migration to the cloud.

The Hitchcock brothers conceptualized SurrealDB in 2015 after years of experience building cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) systems. Their goal was to develop a structured yet flexible database platform that reduces the need for back-end APIs, database layers, and usage of cloud data platforms or single data models. As a result, SurrealDB offers real-time queries, multiuser access with security permissions, and performant analytical workloads.

The platform’s various features enable the creation of client-side apps directly connected to SurrealDB, while traditional, server-side dev setups can use SurrealDB’s querying and analytics capabilities.

Being user-friendly and quick to contribute to, SurrealDB is capable of iterating quickly with new features and requires a lean team to make agile decisions. FirstMark's Matt Turck commented on the ambitious nature of the platform and its extraordinary growth in the developer community, referring to it as a company with immense potential.

Originally launched as an open-source database platform, SurrealDB converted to a cloud offering while still actively developing its open-source offering. The freshly raised capital will support the expansion of the three-person team to approximately 18 members, and accommodate the commercial launch of SurrealDB’s cloud offering in early 2023.

With the adoption of no-code platforms, like AppMaster.io, taking leaps in the tech industry, SurrealDB's database-as-a-service offering complements the modern development landscape. Combined with powerful no-code tools, developers can effectively meet their app-building requirements in a streamlined and cost-effective manner.