MindsDB raises $25M to make machine learning and AI accessible to companies as AI race heats up

Data is the lifeblood of every organization and databases are the containers to store the data, be it storing financial data, medical imaging, and employees, or just about any kind of mission-critical data.

Despite the evolution of databases over time, they still lack the necessary capabilities to support the development of advanced AI-focused applications. That’s why MindsDB, one of the fastest-growing open-source AI projects in the world, is aiming to address this limitation by imbuing enterprise databases with advanced intelligence.

MindsDB is the world’s most widely-used open-source applied machine learning (ML) platform that merges the capabilities of databases with popular machine learning (ML) frameworks to radically simplify the process of applying machine learning to applications. In addition, MindsDB makes it easier for developers to use neural networks to gain predictive insights that allow companies to make better business decisions.

To further accelerate the expansion of its AI-Logic Cloud platform, MindsDB announced today it has raised an additional $25 million in funding led by new investor Mayfield, with participation from TQ Ventures and existing investor Benchmark Capital.

The news comes just three months after MindsDB raised $16.5M in Series A funding from Benchmark. The latest round brings the total seed capital raised to $41.5 million and total funds raised to $50 million.

Founded in 2017 by CEO Jorge Torres and COO Adam Carrigan, MindsDB helps companies quickly launch AI applications use MindsDB to connect virtually any data source to leading AI models — all without needing traditional AI/ML engineers. MindsDB is backed by investors including Benchmark, Walden Catalyst Ventures, YCombinator, and OpenOcean, the venture fund launched by the creators of MySQL and MariaDB, SpeedInvest, and the University of California Berkeley SkyDeck fund.

As the popularity of AI, including ChatGPT, continues to soar, businesses are in a race to integrate AI into their operations and customer interfaces. However, building AI applications can be a slow and expensive process, often requiring a dedicated team of AI engineers.

To address this challenge, MindsDB offers a solution that empowers developers to swiftly deploy AI and machine learning applications, effectively transforming them into AI/ML Engineers. With MindsDB, developers can easily connect various data sources, ranging from databases like Postgres, MongoDB, and Snowflake to applications like Salesforce and Gmail, leveraging the latest AI innovations such as OpenAI, Hugging Face, or LangChain.

MindsDB provides a platform available in both open-source and managed-cloud versions, creating an intelligent layer that bridges the gap between different data sources and AI frameworks. It offers a streamlined deployment and management workflow, enabling developers to efficiently transition their AI-powered applications from prototyping and experimentation to stable, fast, and enterprise-ready production environments.

“MindsDB is possible because of the incredible open-source community behind it, which has spent 5 years constantly testing and perfecting our technology. We are excited to be the most production-grade AI development solution in the market, accessible for companies of all sizes. So, whether your company has one or ten thousand developers needing to build and ship AI-First Applications, MindsDB is here to help” said Jorge Torres, Co-founder and CEO of MindsDB.

Building on the momentum of its open-source project, MindsDB has achieved several key milestones including adding more than a hundred platform integrations, including with big tech players like OpenAI, Hugging Face, Snowflake, MongoDB, and Databricks.

“Using MindsDB Cloud to bring AI to Rize has been a game-changer. When I started exploring ML, it seemed like I’d need six months of experimentation, model training and building out pipelines to productionize. said Macgill Davis, CTO of Rize (an intelligent time-tracking app maker). “By using MindsDB Cloud to train and auto-deploy models directly from my database, I saved months of work and many thousands of dollars,”

Mayfield is a storied early-stage investor with a track record of guiding companies from inception to iconic, including most recently dev-first leader HashiCorp. “I believe that the entire software stack will be rebuilt for the AI-first era, resulting in the rise of many enduring companies,” said Navin Chaddha, Mayfield Managing Director. “As the industry’s first cloud to serve AI logic, similar to BEA/Oracle in the Web 1.0 era, MindsDB is the middle-tier intelligence which enables existing developers to deliver production-ready AI applications. I look forward to partnering with Jorge, Adam and the team as they supercharge enterprise adoption of AI.”