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BI start-up raises $26m

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 04 May 2012

BI start-up raises $26m

Big data start-up Birst has raised $26 million in its fourth round of funding, with a goal of accelerating growth and product development, Venture Beat writes.

Birst is part of a relatively crowded field of business intelligence (BI) players, including QlikTech, SAP, IBM, Oracle, GoodData and Microstrategy.

But Birst claims it only allocates “one-third the cost, time and staff of traditional big BI”, while still being available in software as a service (SaaS) form and on-premise.

The company has always been among the leaders in the world of SaaS BI offerings, competing against the likes of GoodData and Bime Analytics, but in late 2011, it began venturing outside its comfort zone by actually selling software, GigaOM reports.

First was an on-premise version of its flagship BI application in September, followed by its very own in-memory database in December.

Those decisions were bold - selling software is an entirely different business from selling cloud services - but Birst CEO Brad Peters said at the time he was confident they would pay off because the company was applying the lessons of SaaS design to traditional software.

“This is an extraordinary time for us. We founded Birst to change the way the world used and interacted with BI, and by pushing the envelope of possibility, we are witnessing great success,” The San Francisco Chronicle quotes Peters as saying.

“This investment furthers Birst's ability to continue to drive innovation and expand our solution to new markets and new audiences. We are thrilled to have world-class investors such as Sequoia Capital by our side.”

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