Startups > Yugabyte

Yugabyte

Yugabyte is a distributed SQL database for cloud-native, multi-region applications.

Series C $290M+ total Founded 2016 United States

Yugabyte is an open-source distributed SQL database that combines strong consistency with ACID transactional support across data centers and regions. It supports two APIs—PostgreSQL-compatible YSQL and Cassandra-compatible YCQL—on the same underlying distributed engine, enabling automatic sharding, replication, and dynamic scaling. The company serves cloud-native enterprises in financial services, payments, streaming, and IoT that need multi-region active-active deployments with predictable performance.

Problem solved

Enterprises need a relational database that scales horizontally across regions while maintaining ACID guarantees and avoiding the latency issues and resource inefficiency of traditional distributed databases.

Target customer

Enterprise companies with global applications requiring multi-region deployment, strong consistency, and ACID compliance. Primarily financial services, payments platforms, streaming services, and IoT companies.

Website LinkedIn Crunchbase

Founders

Kannan Muthukkaruppan

Co-Founder and President

Ex-Facebook engineer who built and operated Cassandra and HBase. UC Berkeley graduate.

Karthik Ranganathan

Co-Founder

Ex-Facebook engineer who built and operated Cassandra and HBase for Facebook Messenger and Operational Data Store.

Mikhail Bautin

Co-Founder

Former Nutanix engineer and ex-Facebook team member who worked on distributed systems.

Funding history

Seed $8M November 2017 Led by Unknown · Unknown

Series A $17M June 2018 Led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Dell Technologies Capital · Unknown

Series B $30M March 2021 Led by 8VC · Wipro Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Dell Technologies Capital

Series C $188M October 2021 Led by Sapphire Ventures · Alkeon Capital, Meritech Capital, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, 8VC, Dell Technologies Capital, Wipro Ventures

Total raised: $290M+

Industries

Cloud Infrastructure Database Enterprise Software Open Source

Pricing

Open-source YugabyteDB available free under Apache 2.0 license. YugabyteDB Aeon (managed DBaaS) pricing not publicly available.

Notable customers

Wells Fargo, Kroger, Hudson River Trading, Narvar, Plume, Paramount+, Charles Schwab

Integrations

AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, Kubernetes, PostgreSQL drivers and tooling, Cassandra ecosystem tools

Website

yugabyte.com/

Competitors

CockroachDB

CockroachDB is cloud-native distributed SQL but Yugabyte offers 3x better performance in some evaluations and provides dual-API support (PostgreSQL and Cassandra compatible).

TiDB

TiDB is MySQL-compatible distributed SQL inspired by Google Spanner, while Yugabyte is PostgreSQL-compatible with additional Cassandra-compatible API option.

PostgreSQL / EDB Postgres

Traditional PostgreSQL doesn't provide native distributed SQL or multi-region deployment, while Yugabyte adds distributed capabilities while maintaining PostgreSQL compatibility.

Why this matters: Yugabyte represents a rare technical achievement: a distributed database that doesn't compromise on consistency or performance, backed by ex-Facebook engineers who built Cassandra. With $290M+ in funding and marquee customers like Wells Fargo and Paramount+, it's become the standard for enterprises needing PostgreSQL-compatible distributed SQL at scale.

Best for: Enterprise organizations building global, cloud-native applications requiring multi-region deployment with strong consistency and ACID compliance, especially those with existing PostgreSQL or Cassandra expertise.

Use cases

Multi-region financial systems

Financial institutions and payments platforms use YugabyteDB to power distributed systems like UPI that require active-active multi-region deployment with strict consistency guarantees. The database enables horizontal scaling without sacrificing transactional integrity.

Global streaming and content delivery

Streaming platforms like Paramount+ use YugabyteDB to enhance scalability and reliability by deploying across multiple regions. This ensures low-latency access for users worldwide while maintaining data consistency across regions.

IoT and telemetry platforms

Companies like Plume manage billions of daily operations across IoT devices by using YugabyteDB to efficiently handle massive scale while maintaining relational query capabilities needed for analytics.

Alternatives

CockroachDB Choose CockroachDB if you prefer a pure SQL-first approach and don't need Cassandra compatibility, though Yugabyte delivers superior performance in head-to-head comparisons.

TiDB Choose TiDB if your stack is MySQL-native and you want a distributed SQL solution optimized for MySQL compatibility rather than PostgreSQL.

Traditional PostgreSQL with replication Choose PostgreSQL if you don't need native distributed SQL and can manage sharding and multi-region replication at the application layer.

FAQ

What does Yugabyte do? +

Yugabyte is an open-source distributed SQL database that provides strong consistency, ACID transactions, and multi-region active-active deployment. It supports both PostgreSQL-compatible YSQL and Cassandra-compatible YCQL APIs on the same distributed engine, enabling enterprises to scale horizontally without sacrificing relational capabilities or data consistency.

How much does Yugabyte cost? +

YugabyteDB is free and open-source under the Apache 2.0 license. YugabyteDB Aeon, the managed cloud service, pricing is available by contacting sales.

What are the main alternatives to Yugabyte? +

CockroachDB is a distributed SQL database competitor with stronger marketing but reportedly lower performance. TiDB is a MySQL-compatible distributed database. Traditional PostgreSQL with application-layer sharding is an alternative if multi-region consistency requirements are less stringent.

Who uses Yugabyte? +

Enterprise companies in financial services, payments, streaming, and IoT use Yugabyte. Notable customers include Wells Fargo, Kroger, Hudson River Trading, Paramount+, Charles Schwab, and Plume. As of October 2021, the company had approaching 50 commercial customers.

How does Yugabyte compare to CockroachDB? +

Both are cloud-native distributed SQL databases, but Yugabyte offers 3x better performance in documented comparisons and avoids latency hiccups seen with CockroachDB. Yugabyte differentiates with dual-API support (PostgreSQL and Cassandra) and superior multi-region active-active capabilities. Choose CockroachDB if you prefer a simpler SQL-only interface; choose Yugabyte for performance and flexibility.