Database software startup Cockroach Labs raises $160 million

By Jane Lanhee Lee

(Reuters) - Cockroach Labs, a cloud database management software startup, said on Tuesday it raised $160 million, following other tech startups in securing big funding during the pandemic as businesses move online at a greater pace than ever.

The company said it has raised a total $355 million to date and its valuation has more than doubled in the past nine months, giving it a post-funding valuation of $2.16 billion.

The latest funding round was led by Altimeter Capital, an investor in cloud data platform Snowflake Inc, which raised $3.36 billion in September.

While Snowflake helps companies analyze big data in the cloud, Cockroach helps ensure real time data in the cloud is correct across all platforms, said Cockroach chief executive Spencer Kimball. For example, the software ensures that even if one data center is down, customers can access the data through other data centers, and that the numbers match up so that things like bank accounts aren't showing different amounts due to time lags.

Kimball said Cockroach was targeting a market traditionally served by database giant Oracle Corp..

"That is the nice pie that we are going to really be trying to eat," he said, adding that cloud businesses at big tech companies such as Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc, and Microsoft Corp were also aiming for that database market.

To compete, Kimball said Cockroach needed to accelerate its product development, and the additional funding would be used in part for that purpose.

Cockroach said existing investors Benchmark, Bond, FirstMark, GV, Index Ventures, and Tiger Global participated in its latest funding round.

(Reporting By Jane Lanhee Lee; editing by Richard Pullin)