ScaleArc raises $5.33 million for database optimization

Trinity Ventures backs provider of cloud-based database infrastructure software

Websites are constantly trying to optimize their pages so they load faster. One solution is to buy more servers. But that's not always the answer. In fact, optimizing the database might be.

ScaleArc announced Tuesday that it's raised $5.33 million in Series B round of financing, led by Trinity Ventures. The last round of funding came in early 2010, when the Menlo Park, Calif-based start-up raised $750,000 from Nexus Venture Partners.

The new funds will be used to scale out its sales team and customer base of large corporations, said Varun Singh, CEO and founder of ScaleArc, in an interview with me. 

ScaleArc, which has much of its engineering team based out of India, provides database infrastructure software that helps companies optimize their databases with analytics that can help them perform better. For instance, if VatorNews runs a popular campaign or article and it's accessed by 20,000 people in a minute, our platform shouldn't have to query our database each time a reader views that article or campaign. The Web page can be cached, eliminating the need for more database servers. This can be done using ScaleArc, explained Singh. "We can eliminate duplicate queries," said Singh. "We're augmenting capacity."

Currently, ScaleArc offers a cloud-based solution for as low as $500 a month. At the moment, it has six customers paying about $2700 a month. It also has an appliance-based solution, which it's testing out with Coupons.com and Demand Media. This appliance sells for $50,000 to $120,000 one-time fee for the year, plus recurring service and upgrade fees thereafter.

In the long run, ScaleArc would like to focus on SaaS (software as a service) customers. But at the moment, it will focus on landing large corporations. 

In addition to the funding, ScaleArc also announced the appointment of seasoned enterprise software executive Justin Barney as president and COO.