Berlin-based startup SereneDB has successfully concluded its Pre-Seed funding round, securing .1 million with the backing of prominent venture funds, Entourage and High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF). This funding marks a significant step for the company as it aims to address the limitations of traditional search and analytics tools, which are often ill-equipped to handle the demands of fast-changing, complex data environments.
Many existing tools are designed to retrieve static items rather than analyze dynamic datasets, leading to challenges with real-time updates and deletions. Consequently, teams often find themselves piecing together searches, caches, and dashboards, resulting in slow responses, fragile data pipelines, and outdated insights.
SereneDB is poised to revolutionize this landscape by leveraging the team’s expertise in creating one of the fastest enterprise-grade C++ search libraries to develop a next-generation data application engine. In a recent conversation with CEO Alexander Malandin, he elaborated on the innovative approach of SereneDB.
Bringing Live Data and Deep Analysis Together
SereneDB integrates live data and comprehensive analysis within a single system. By combining a robust search engine with modern OLAP execution under the PostgreSQL framework, it facilitates real-time data ingestion while ensuring accurate updates and deletions. This capability allows for the retrieval of complex results in mere milliseconds.
According to Malandin, the platform’s design enables both human users and AI agents to pose more insightful queries based on the most current data. This not only streamlines operations but also reduces tooling costs and operational risks by utilizing standardized SQL tools and APIs.
Malandin identifies three foundational pillars that underpin SereneDB:
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“First: we’re written in an efficient stack. C++ lets us do things faster or with far fewer resources.”
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“Second: we bring functionality to the market that hasn’t existed before — search tools couldn’t work with real-time changing data.”
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“Third: we’re doing it all in open source. Because we believe in value creation through communities.”
Why Two Industry Veterans Chose to Reinvent Search and Databases
At the helm of SereneDB is CEO Alexander Malandin, whose journey began as a chemical technologist before transitioning into IT. With extensive experience at EMC, Dell, and ArangoDB, he is joined by CTO Andrey Abramov, a seasoned expert in information retrieval who has made significant contributions to search-driven database design.
Principal Software Engineer Valery Mironov, a self-taught developer and open-source advocate, rounds out the leadership team. Together, Malandin and Abramov share a 16-year partnership that spans various IT ventures, including their time at ArangoDB.
Malandin reflects on his career trajectory, noting his passion for infrastructure:
“I love infrastructure because it’s tangible. It’s slow, yes — deal cycles are six to twelve months — but it’s also the layer everything else is built on. That’s where you can make a real impact.”
The pivotal moment for Malandin and Abramov came during their tenure at ArangoDB, where they felt constrained in pursuing their innovative ideas. Malandin recalls:
“We reached a moment where we simply couldn’t get attention for the ideas we wanted to build. We knew the market needed what we were thinking about, but we couldn’t pursue it inside the company. So we left to build it ourselves.”
Rethinking Search in the Enterprise
Despite its pervasive role in digital interactions, enterprise search remains largely underdeveloped and reliant on outdated technologies. Malandin points out the irony:
“Search is one of the biggest technologies of our lives — we use it dozens, if not hundreds, of times a day. But enterprise search is tiny.”
While alternative search libraries exist, Abramov’s creation, iResearch, stands out as one of the few independent options. Malandin emphasizes the unique approach of SereneDB:
“Honestly, no one has tried to integrate a search library with a database the way we’re doing it. Historically, companies put a search library next to a database. They exchanged data, but they didn’t understand each other. There was no consistency.”
SereneDB’s architecture aims to eliminate this disconnect by creating a unified engine where search and database functionalities are tightly integrated. This innovative approach allows for the simultaneous handling of live data writes, full-text search queries, and analytical queries within a single system.
The Importance of Real-Time Data
By merging search and analytics into a cohesive engine, SereneDB positions itself as an essential infrastructure layer for the real-time data era. Malandin underscores the significance of real-time processing:
“Real time matters enormously.”
He shares an anecdote about a logistics company that struggled to derive insights from its operational data due to lengthy update cycles. The inability to access the freshest data limited their analytical capabilities:
“The freshest data has the most value, but it was basically unavailable to them.”
SereneDB aims to bridge the gap between rapidly changing data and the ability to execute sophisticated queries, thereby unlocking new layers of value for businesses.
Developer Community Response and Future Plans
The initial response from the developer community has been overwhelmingly positive, with many eager to explore SereneDB’s capabilities. Malandin notes:
“Whenever we explain that we’re building something with the functionality of ElasticSearch and ClickHouse, with a Postgres front end people already know, everyone says, ‘When can I try it?’”
As the company has just begun publishing its code on GitHub, Malandin acknowledges the challenge of meeting the high demand for demos. SereneDB is expected to resonate particularly well with two key user groups:
- Startups: Malandin argues that while Postgres serves as the default database, it often falls short for analytics as startups scale. SereneDB aims to be fully compatible with Postgres, allowing startups to maintain transactional capabilities while leveraging SereneDB for analytical needs.
- Existing search users: The team has already identified use cases where SereneDB outperforms ElasticSearch by a factor of ten, offering a comprehensive analytical layer on top.
This funding will enable SereneDB to expand its team and further its commitment to open-source development, fostering a collaborative environment for the data community. By providing reliable, real-time insights throughout the data lifecycle, SereneDB aspires to establish a new standard for modern analytics.
As Pieterjan Bouten, Founder and Managing Partner at Entourage, aptly states:
“Unlocking this data foundation paves the way for a wave of new applications. SereneDB is building that infrastructure, and they have the grit to see it through.”
Hendryk Hosemann, Senior Investment Manager at HTGF, echoes this sentiment, highlighting the critical need for real-time data capabilities as AI becomes increasingly central to software products. He notes:
“SereneDB is redefining AI-memory infrastructure with search and analytics accessible to everyone through PostgreSQL.”
