Self-described “operational artificial intelligence” firm Splice Machine Inc. has just added $16 million to its kitty following a round of funding led by GreatPoint Ventures.

Accenture Ventures and individual investor and SunBridge Group Chief Executive Officer Allen Miner also participated in the Series B round, bringing the company’s total funding to $58 million to date.

Splice Machine is a unique player in AI, offering a database-as-a-service product that combines the features of a relational database with a data warehouse and machine learning. It’s designed to power new, next-generation “predictive applications” that rely on machine learning and data analytics in order to learn from the past. Apps built on the platform can leverage data streaming and traditional transactional capabilities to work in real time, performing tasks such as preventive maintenance on “internet of things” devices and predicting late orders for manufacturing, among other uses.

The company’s DBaaS, which leverages popular open-source big data technologies such as Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark and Apache HBase, allows data be to analyzed using traditional Structured Query Language commands. That means it’s accessible to a much broader range of users.

“Whether humans or machine learning models are making the decisions, access to the data and computation must be blazingly fast,” Splice Machine Chief Executive Officer Monte Zweben (pictured) said in a statement. “Splice Machine removes latency from applications to speed high-quality decision-making with an integrated data platform, enabling enterprises to make intelligent decisions in mission-critical applications.”

Accenture Ventures’ participation in the round is significant because Splice Machine recently announced it was partnering with its parent consulting firm, Accenture Plc, to bring its platform to more customers. As part of that arrangement, Accenture will become the preferred systems integrator for Splice Machine’s platform globally.

Paul Daugherty, Accenture’s chief technology and innovation officer, said he believes Splice Machine’s platform has potential in many different applications, such as predicting customer churn, impending fraud, medical conditions, or anticipating customer purchases.

That may help to explain why Zweben says the company is planning to invest “heavily” in its partnership with Accenture. Splice Machine will also use the new funds to “further innovate” its product and grow its engineering and sales teams, he said.

“As data is the new oil, data storage is the supertanker that delivers it,” said Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president of Constellation Research Inc. “It needs to be automated, multi-modal, cost efficient and delivered in the cloud. So it’s no surprise that such startups such as Splice Machine are investing into that space. Now, the company must improve its offering on product side, for example through enabling deep learning networks, and drive more adoption.”

Photo: SiliconANGLE