More dollars for big data: Stealthy ParAccel spinoff raises $10M

A startup called Sparql City just raised $10 million, according to an SEC filing.

Sparql City isn’t a typical startup, as it was developed as a spinout from ParAccel, about a year or so before it was bought by Actian. CEO Barry Zane said he held off on launching the company and raising financing until the ParAccel acquisition was complete.

The round was led by venture buyout firm Garnett & Helfrich Capital.

Some basic information is available on Sparql City’s website, but the technology is still under development. According to Zane, the company has built its initial product, dubbed Sparql Base, which lets anyone query data, whether or not they have programming experience.

“We are without a doubt the highest performance and most scalable of the Sparql players,” said Zane by phone.

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The company is already making its product to customers in the pharmaceutical, life sciences, government, financial services and health verticals. An open source version is available for developers to download on the website; likely, the founders will begin offering consulting services further down the line.

Development for the company began in 2011 by a San Diego- and Boston-based team of database system engineers.

Zane is a familiar face in enterprise circles, as the former cofounder and CTO of ParAccel. ParAccel was acquired this year, despite early protestations from the CEO that the company would remain a scrappy little guy.

According to an e-mail from Zane, Garnett & Helfrich’s Terry Garnett “drove the drove the investment and corporate structure” for the entity.