Open-source graph database startup ArangoDB GmbH today said it has landed $27.8 million in a new funding round led by Iris Capital.

Existing investors Bow Capital and Target Partners also participated in the Series B round alongside another new backer, New Forge, bringing ArangoDB’s total amount raised to $47 million.

ArangoDB has built a graph database of the same name that has the unique ability to navigate relationships between data elements and discover linkages that are difficult or impossible to detect through conventional Structured Query Language databases and relational data stores.

The technology is particularly well-suited for applications that involve navigating complex interrelationships among elements. A graph database can, for example, efficiently analyze the relationships between the hardware components of a carrier network to identify performance bottlenecks. They can also power a wide range of applications in other areas, from recommendation engines to healthcare analytics systems.

ArangoDB has some useful features that set it apart, with native support for data formats such as JSON documents, key-value and full-text search capabilities adding to its usefulness. The database is designed to scale to enterprises’ needs thanks to its unique approach of sharded data across large clusters. Database shards are horizontal partitions of data stored on separate database server instances to spread the load.

The company, which was founded in 2015 and has offices in Cologne, Germany, and San Francisco, provides a free community edition of its database under a fully open-source license. It also offers a fully managed, cloud-based enterprise version for companies that don’t want the hassle of hosting and managing it themselves.

Today’s funding is another big shot in the arm for a graph database industry that analysts believe will become hugely important in the coming years. Gartner Inc. has forecast that graph technologies will be used in 80% of data and analytics projects by 2025, up from just 10% currently. Meanwhile, Forrester Research Inc. says enterprise adoption of graph technologies will double by 2026.

ArangoDB faces multiple competitors in the graph database market, including several that recently grabbed sizable funding rounds themselves. Those rivals include Memgraph Ltd., which raised $9.34 million in seed funding earlier this week, and Neo4j Inc., which is widely considered to be the market leader after raising $325 million in June. Another big rival is TigerGraph Inc., which was in the news this week as it launched a major update to its platform.

Despite the intense competition, ArangoDB seems to have carved out a niche for itself. It counts a number of high-profile customers including Altair Engineering Inc., Barclays Plc, Cisco Systems Inc., Juniper Networks Inc., Refinitiv Ltd., RE/MAX LLC and VMware Inc.

ArangoDB co-founder and Chief Executive Claudius Weinberger said the reason for his company’s popularity is that it helps enterprises overcome the challenge of getting real value out of their data.

“ArangoDB’s goal from day one is to make it extremely easy to handle data of any kind,” he said. “Graph and beyond enable everyone to combine graphs, structured, unstructured, and more kinds of data in one solution, at enterprise-scale with advanced graph analytics. Our Series B funding will allow us to accelerate our mission to make it even easier to generate real value from data, as well as enter new markets.”

ArangoDB said it will use the money from today’s round to fund its ongoing development of advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities and accelerate adoption of its platform. To that end, the company said it’s hiring new staff across its engineering, marketing, product management, sales and recruiting teams.

Image: ArangoDB