Neo Technology raises $10.6M to help enterprises manage increasingly complex data

Database solutions startup Neo Technology on Wednesday announced it has raised $10.6 million with a goal of helping enterprise companies manage and interpret increasingly complicated data sets using NOSQL.

“People have been using SQL databases for many years, but we’re shifting into a new era where data is getting more complex to process.” Neo Technology CEO Emil Eifrem told VentureBeat. “Companies need real-time data processing abilities with a flexible data model and scalability, and we can help provide that.”

Menlo Park, Calif.-based Neo Technology uses Neo4j, the NOSQL open-source database, to solve next-generation data problems facing enterprise app developers. It currently helps big-name customers like Cisco, Adobe, Box.net and StudiVZ with storing and interpreting critical data from many kinds of databases and sources.

The funding round was led by Fidelity Growth Partners Europe, with participation by original investors Sunstone Capital and Conor Venture Partners. Rod Johnson, the founder and CEO of SpringSource, also participated in the funding and will become Neo Technology’s Chairman.

“Rod is one of the most successful open-source entrepreneurs,” Eifrem said. “We’re privileged to tap into his experience and strategic insight.”

Eifrem said Neo will be investing a chunk of its new funding into building out its roster of engineers and sales and marketing associates. The 25-employee company will try to hire a dozen more employees by the end of year and double the size of the company by the end of 2012.

“Customer demand used to be our biggest barrier to growth but now customer demand is through the roof,” Eifrem said. “Now the biggest barrier is talent acquisition, and we’re only limited by our ability to meet customer demand. Hopefully that will be less of a problem as we continue to grow.”