Today people are generating more data than ever – 2.5 quintillion bytes of data each day. It’s no surprise that data scientists are in high demand and despite the explosive interest in big data, data scientists have had limited tools to work with. Saturn Cloud fixes this through its enterprise platform that empowers data scientists with the products and features they need including collaboration options, scalable infrastructure, and embedded analytics. The company’s flagship product Dask is a flexible library for parallel computing in Python that easily interoperates with other languages with multiple use cases including business intelligence applications, machine learning, and linear algebra.
AlleyWatch learned more about Saturn Cloud’s latest funding round, in a candid interview with Hugo Shi and Sebastian Metti.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
We raised a $4M seed round led by SignalFire.
Tell us about the product or service that Saturn Cloud offers.
Saturn Cloud is an enterprise platform that gives data scientists the tools to do all the things they want – seamless collaboration, effortlessly scalable compute resources, and easy analytics.
What inspired you to start Saturn Cloud?
We love the data science space and the community. Most of our friends are data scientists, so we’re very close to it. Beyond that, it’s a space with hyper-fast growth (job growth alone is 20% year-over-year), which offers great tailwinds for a startup.
How is Saturn Cloud different?
We put the customer before everything. Having a customer-first approach to development has led us to build a platform that tons of data scientists are using every day because it’s so useful.
What market does Saturn Cloud target and how big is it?
Our market is the data science space, where spending on platforms like Saturn is expected to exceed $100B annually. This growth is being accelerated by a number of highly compelling macro trends, including the data explosion and soaring use of cloud computing.
Who do you consider to be your main competitors?
Amazon and Google both offer free data science tools as part of their cloud computing offering. Saturn can be installed on the AWS and GCP clouds, so while we compete in some respects, we’re also helping each other win.
What’s your business model?
SaaS.
What was the funding process like?
We initially planned to raise early next year, but the inbound VC interest was so high right out the gate that we opted to run a tight process in the summer to give us operating bandwidth for Q4 (a big budgeting period for enterprise). We spoke with dozens of firms, met them in NYC, and wrapped up the entire raise in a matter of 2 weeks. Definitely the fastest round I’ve seen.
We initially planned to raise early next year, but the inbound VC interest was so high right out the gate that we opted to run a tight process in the summer to give us operating bandwidth for Q4 (a big budgeting period for enterprise). We spoke with dozens of firms, met them in NYC, and wrapped up the entire raise in a matter of 2 weeks. Definitely the fastest round I’ve seen.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Seed round challenges are usually about pitching vision, so sorting that out well is typically the key challenge.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Impressive growth metrics, booked revenue, and a strong team with a track record in the space.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Hiring a brilliant team to develop and commercialize our flagship offering, Dask.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Don’t spend money on New York City rent.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
Pizza by Horus on Saint Marks Place
