Neurelo Inc., a startup that has created a cloud-based data application programming interface platform for PostgreSQL, MongoDB and MySQL databases, launched today armed with $5 million in seed funding.

The round was led by Foundation Capital and saw participation from Cortical Ventures, Secure Octane Investments and Aviso Ventures.

The startup has created what it says is a comprehensive and extensible data access platform that’s designed to enhance developer productivity. It does this by simplifying the way applications interact with databases, the company explains.

According to Neurelo, the task of connecting applications to data has always been a major headache for developers, even though data is what makes every application tick. The startup aims to solve this problem with a programmable interface that sits between the database and applications.

It does this by creating customized APIs based on the developer’s data model. It’s intended to help simplify the way databases interact with applications, automating the underlying complexity.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Chirag Shah told TechCrunch in an interview that he first realized the issues developers faced with databases while working at his old employer, MongoDB Inc. He explained that whereas larger technology companies like Facebook have managed to solve data connectivity headaches with the use of customized programming interfaces, most developers don’t have the resources to build their own.

Neurelo helps to automate the creation of these customized APIs, based on the underlying data model, for almost any kind of application, be it a game or e-commerce platform or something else. It automatically creates the most appropriate API to sit between the database and the app’s programming interface. In addition, Neurelo also provides visibility into how its custom APIs work, as opposed to presenting it as a black box.

“We’re building this abstraction layer that absolutely gives developers every single read and write you want from your software for your data, for your database,” Shah said. “You get that as a purpose-built API for your data model, and it unlocks all the complexities and simplifies all the complexities as you go into production for performance scale.”

Neurelo also applies a sprinkling of generative artificial intelligence, generating database queries automatically via a large language model, so it can quickly learn about the nuances of each data platform and its associated query language.

The company’s Cloud Data API Platform is generally available from today, and provides auto-generated, purpose-built REST and GraphQL APIs, with AI-generated custom-query endpoints, deep query observability and schema-as-code out of the box.

Neurelo currently operates with a very small engineering team of just seven staff, which only came together nine months ago and has been focused on building the beta of its product. In total, it counts just 12 people on its team, and one of the priorities going forward will be to hire more staff to help its platform scale and grow.

Image: Neurelo