Datical scores $10M in Series C to respond to growing demand for automated database release

The fast-growing company says it offers a unique solution in the untapped market

Our daily routines increasingly depend on software, whether it’s in our cars, smartphones, and homes. Same applies to the economy, as enterprises across industries operate through digital applications. But software requires constant updates, while each release of its backbone – the database – has been a manual procedure that is tedious and costly.

Datical, which announced its Series C funding Thursday, was one of the first companies to specialize on automating the release of databases.

“As we have transformed different parts of a software development life cycle, the database has been neglected,” the startup’s Chief Executive Officer, Derek Hutson, said in an interview with VatorNews. “And that’s what Datical does – we’re able to accelerate the ability to deliver the database aligned with an application so that companies like Freddie Mac, or Anthem, can release software faster, serve more customers more effectively, and ultimately, make more money and reduce costs.”

Today, the Austin-based company said it has scored $10 million in its latest and, most likely, last, fundraising. The round was led by River Cities Capital Funds, with participating existing investors S3 Ventures and Mercury Fund. The partnership with River Cities extends as its Vice President, Adam Midkiff, joins the board of Datical as part of the deal.

“Datical is solving a critical, yet often overlooked problem facing development teams today,” Midkiff said in a statement today. “The company is uniquely positioned to change the way that organizations improve the customer experience through software, and we’re excited to work with such an innovative team on achieving this mission.”

Hutson said Datical plans to use the funds for software development to expand the number of database platforms, for customer support to sustain its rapid growth, and for scaling its sales and marketing team. The company aims to address the increasing demand in the U.S., as well as enter new markets overseas. He added that Datical, which currently employs less than 100 people, plans to increase the headcount 25 percent this year.

Launched in 2013, Datical serves about 30 percent of the biggest banks in the United States, according to Hutson. Also among its clients are companies in various industries including insurance, retail, and technology, which could not be named for reasons of privacy and security. The primary target for Datical are large enterprises that deal with software development and related databases and are dependent on innovation. The pricing depends on the number of databases under management by Datical for a company.

Hutson said one of its clients, insurance provider Colonial Life, went from releasing software two or three times per year to between eight to ten times per year when it joined Datical. That meant they could respond to the market quicker with updates, give more capabilities to its agents, and sell more insurance policies.

To date, Datical has received $27 million in investments and believes this round will be the last. Hutson said the company is “very financially strong,” with its customer base expanding 30 percent last year, thanks to the increasing awareness that manual database release is “a huge problem” that holds up business growth. He added that the company’s initial challenge, like for any first-time inventor, was opening up a new market and gaining recognition.

“Obviously, we have grown tremendously over the past three years, but that’s just been a continual challenge,” he said.

The upside of that has been little competition. Some enterprises employ a database release team that either performs the task manually or automates it, but there are few specialists that focus on this process.  

“We’re in a developing market, but we’re the leader. With the breadth of our technology, the breadth of our platform support – we are way ahead of anybody else in the market,” Hutson said.

One of Datical’s goals is creating “raving fans” among its customers, according to Hutson. “Every interaction with our customer, we want to be high-integrity,” he said. “We take customer success and customer satisfaction as an integrity issue and if our customers aren’t happy, then that’s an integrity issue for us.”

Looking ahead, Hutson said, “We want to enable Datical to be the way that large enterprises manage all their database releases, and make it fully integrated into the application development process. Our goal over the next three to four years is to allow our customers to be able to treat database code just like application code. That will reduce costs and increase innovation.”

Image: Datical