COVID reality has changed the global economy, instead of stores, consumerism has found a comfortable home online, with E-commerce experiencing major growth over the pandemic period. This means that a lot, and I mean a lot, of data needs to be processed quickly. As the transition to cloud-based services continues to rise, Redis Labs continues to score impressive funding rounds.
This time, the Israeli startup completes a $100 million Series F mega funding round led by Bain Capital and TCV, while existing investors Francisco Partners, Goldman Sachs Growth, Viola Ventures, and Dell Technologies Capital also got in on the action.
The enabler of the online sphere
Redis’ commercial product, Redis Enterprise, offers efficient and cheap spread of data across public cloud services and private data centers. This way, organizations are always prepared for any amount of incoming traffic in real-time. “Redis has always been an online enabler, and COVID reality has highlighted the trend,” explains CEO and co-founder Ofer Bengal in a conversation with Geektime. Bengal adds that the company supports cloud services on both Google and Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure, whereas the tech giants also offer Redis services as their own product. “These are very intimate partners and the expectations from them are very high.”
At the same time, the company has continued to nurture its product RedisAI, which provides accessibility to AI models in real-time for apps. “This is new territory for us, it’s a market that is expected to hit $10 billion within a few years. For us, the expansion comes organically because Redis has always functioned as an engine for accessible data,” claims Bengal.
Bengal reveals that throughout the recent COVID period, the company has witnessed two contrasting phenomenon happen: On one hand, many SMB companies and startups have hit hard times financially and have reduced activity, sometimes even halting operations all together with Redis. However, on the other hand, the company has seen an “influx of new clientele” who want to increase their online activity. Furthermore, the company has seen the likes of banks, credit companies, insurance companies, technology companies, E-commerce, and more, increase their purchases through Redis, as a way to better adapt to the new COVID reality.
Canceled the fundraising due to COVID, and now they’re back with a bang
Including the recent funding round, this brings the company’s total funding to $246 million since it was founded, and it was based on a market value of more than $1 billion. What makes this accomplishment even more impressive is that it took place as the high-tech sector experiences record lows across the board. Bengal tells that the company started the funding process in early 2020, although with the outbreak of the global pandemic, the company decided to abandon the process after speaking with investors. “About two months ago, momentum started to pick up again, with us receiving numerous investing inquiries. I assume that the excitement stems from the company’s positive results and the fact that we operate in a very hot industry right now, as well as having strong and successful comparables like MongoDB and Elastic.”
Nevertheless, we’re talking abut a startup that is celebrating a decade since it was established, and after 6 significant funding rounds, it’s hard not to ponder on where Redis is headed. “For example, MongoDB raised over $350 million before going public two years ago. Nowadays, the company is worth $10 billion without being profitable.” Bengal estimates that the company’s total funded capital will be more than enough until the company goes public, however, he mentions that Redis is in no rush to push for the next level, “because required revenue for an IPO keeps climbing and is getting closer to $200 million, and we are just not there yet.”
Redis Labs was founded in 2011 by entrepreneurs Ofer Bengal and Yiftach Shoolman. In 2015, Redis open-source creator Salvatore Sanfilippo joined the company, as a community leader. The company is based out of Tel Aviv, California, and London. The company reports that the newly acquired funding will be put towards expansion, deepening the grip on the global market, and also for recruiting new talent to the Israel-based R&D center and U.S.-based headquarters.
