Foundational – a company that uses advanced analysis to identify and prevent data issues in data platforms – announced its general availability with $8 million in seed funding. The funding round was led by Viola Ventures and Gradient (Google’s AI-focused venture fund), with participation from Asymmetric Venture Partners and executives from Datadog, Intuit, Meta, Wiz, and others.
Data adoption and many cloud technologies that handle data at scale have rapidly grown. However, data teams still struggle with crucial problems around governance and quality, trailing behind software engineering. Foundational, powered by a proprietary AI-powered code analysis platform that can be instantly deployed through git, enables data and analytics teams to push continuous code changes, safeguarding against frequent issues and harmful incidents that affect critical data.
The company’s founders, Alon Nafta, Omri Ildis, and Barak Fargoun, have a rich history of collaboration since meeting at Intelligence Unit 8200 of the Israel Defense Forces and have gained significant experience through executive roles at Singular and senior engineering positions at Google. And they aim to bridge the gaps in quality for data product development at scale and simplify the data development process, empowering developers to make necessary code changes without the fear of causing unplanned data incidents.
Over the last decade, these data platforms have transitioned from simple and centralized architectures to decentralized and fragmented.
Foundational is signing partnerships with leading data organizations worldwide to redefine how data platforms are built and maintained at scale. With this funding round, Foundational will continue developing its technology and introduce new and exciting product capabilities that benefit data developers as they build at scale.
KEY QUOTES:
“It has become a remarkably difficult task for developers to confirm crucial questions like, ‘What dashboards will this schema change affect?’ ‘Can I deploy this code change safely?’ or ‘What data pipelines do we have that are not working?’ The inability to validate simple code changes, and the lack of visibility and controls, and the time-consuming nature of data engineering create a dramatic bottleneck on innovation and adoption of data and AI. We’re excited to join forces with Viola Ventures and Gradient Ventures to build new tools and technologies as more companies try to leverage data at scale and introduce AI to the business.”
– Alon Nafta, Foundational’s CEO and cofounder
“Data is exploding everywhere, and organizations that manage data properly will become the big winners. Software engineering has been able to scale tremendously through the use of code analysis, CI/CD and SDLC, and Foundational is now introducing these to data. We’re excited to support the journey of this exceptional team as they transform how companies manage data at scale.”
– Zvika Orron, General Partner at Viola Ventures
“The evolving nature of the modern data stack creates a perpetual challenge for enterprises to manage and develop data products at scale, especially in the age of AI. Foundational’s unique approach prevents changes to critical data infrastructure from adversely affecting existing data integrity, which in turn saves time and reduces business risk. We’re excited to partner with Foundational as they create a way for software engineers to develop new AI products without harming user experience or affecting business operations.”
– Darian Shirazi, General Partner at Gradient Ventures
