Israel-based deep tech startup SQream raises $39.4 million in B+ funding

Israeli startup SQream Technologies Ltd. announced Wednesday that it has raised $39.4 million in Series B+ funding. The round was led by Mangrove Capital Partners and Schusterman Family Investments, who joined existing investors, including Hanaco Venture Capital, Sistema.vc, World Trade Center Ventures, Blumberg Capital, Silvertech Ventures and the Alibaba Group.

“We are in the midst of phenomenal growth that we didn’t anticipate,” SQream co-founder and CEO Ami Gal told Calcalist in an interview. “When the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak took place we didn’t understand what was going on, but today we are experiencing rapid growth and want to support it. We need to recruit dozens of employees for our development center as quickly as possible to advance our cloud development. What surprised us in a good way is that we were able to grow exponentially despite the challenging times.”

SQream's data acceleration platform enables rapid analysis of vast amounts of raw data from Hadoop or other databases, enabling enterprises to gain meaningful insights. It was founded in 2010 by Ami Gal and Kostya Varakin and today employs 80 people in its Israeli and international offices.

“There are many talented people looking for a stable position right now. We have been able to bring on quality employees, some of whom had worked at startups that ran into difficulties and some of whom came from larger companies who wanted to join a growing company where their conditions could improve,” said Gal. “The deep tech ecosystem in Israel is very crowded and companies compete for a small pool of workers. We want our research and development to be done from here and are putting in extra effort to achieve that goal.

“The world today is less accessible when it comes to air travel and we had to work differently with our clients. We need to find ways to support clients that require more services, without me being able to fly to meet with them as we did in the past. We came up with a new plan to adjust the product’s roadmap, with an emphasis on strengthening our cloud-based product,” Gal said.

The proceeds of the investment will be used to recruit top talent to accelerate advancements in the company's technology and cloud innovation, and customer delivery platforms, in light of rising demand. Charlie Federman from Silvertech Ventures, and leading venture capitalist Roy Saar from Mangrove Capital Partners will be joining SQreams’ board of directors.

“Given the growth of data, which has been on a rocket-ship trajectory to zettabyte levels due to rapid digitalization, we are just scraping the surface of how companies will be generating value from their data," Roy Saar, Partner at Mangrove Capital Partners said in a statement. "We are impressed by the quality and experience of the management team. We also share the conviction in SQream’s important role in driving business performance and providing a competitive edge. I could not be more excited about SQream's potential for making a significant impact in the market."

"I have watched with enthusiasm the-product innovation and resulting customer enthusiasm that SQream has earned from large global customers," said Charlie Federman, Partner at Silvertech Ventures. "I am excited to be joining SQream's board of directors at this critical time in its growth into the cloud, and believe that SQream will be a really important vendor for enterprises that need help getting timely critical insights from their data.”

“From the very beginning, our vision has been to enable enterprises to analyze more of their data much faster, providing better, more accurate and comprehensive business insights," Gal said. "We have made our vision a reality by continuously improving our product, and by investing in top developers who enjoy the challenge and motivation of deep tech product innovation.

"The commitment we have received from both new and existing investors in this round, and from our customers, even during such a challenging period, is a strong validation of our vision and market potential," noted Gal. "We look forward to working together to accelerate our expansion, and to further empower enterprises across the globe with timely and impactful business insights.”