Crate.io

NoSQL Databases

Crate.io, the company behind the CrateDB real-time analytics database, was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in the United States.

Reviewed by 7wData
Share Email

On this page

Profile

Crate.io provides CrateDB, an open-source, distributed SQL database for real-time analytics on high-volume operational data, enabling immediate querying without pre-aggregation or ETL.

Crate.io, the company behind the CrateDB real-time analytics database, was founded in 2013 and is headquartered in the United States. The company emerged from the TechCrunch Disrupt Europe 2014 Startup Battlefield competition, where it won with its initial concept. CrateDB is an open-source (Apache 2.0 licensed), distributed SQL database designed for high-volume, high-cardinality operational data.

Its core value proposition is the ability to ingest millions of events per second from IoT sensors, Kafka streams, or application logs and make that data immediately queryable without pre-aggregation or ETL. The product supports a wide range of data types including time-series, JSON, full-text, vector embeddings, and geospatial data within a single engine. CrateDB connects via the PostgreSQL wire protocol and REST HTTP endpoint, and has native connectors for Kafka, Spark, and dbt.

The company offers a fully managed cloud service, CrateDB Cloud, as well as on-premises and edge deployment options. As of mid-2025, Crate.io had raised at least $11 million in a Series A round announced in June 2018, led by Draper Esprit (now Molten Ventures). The company's customer base includes industrial and logistics firms such as ABB, ALPLA, and TGW Logistics, as well as media and technology companies like NBCUniversal and Bitmovin.

Crate.io has not publicly disclosed its current annual recurring revenue or headcount figures. The company operates in a competitive landscape that includes established time-series databases like InfluxDB and TimescaleDB, as well as broader analytics platforms. A notable recent strategic move is the company's focus on AI operations, positioning CrateDB as a unified store for telemetry, maintenance documents, and vector embeddings for AI workloads. The company's financial trajectory beyond its 2018 Series A is not publicly documented, and no subsequent funding rounds or revenue figures have been disclosed in the available research dossier.

Track Crate.io and 240+ vendors.

335k+ subscribers read the daily AI & data note. One email, both newsletters. Unsubscribe anytime.

Who buys this

  • Industrial and manufacturing companies needing real-time analytics on sensor and telemetry data for operational monitoring and predictive maintenance.
  • Logistics and supply chain firms requiring real-time tracking and analytics on high-cardinality event streams from warehouse automation and fleet management systems.
  • Media and entertainment companies that need to analyze user behavior, content performance, and ad metrics in real time across large-scale streaming platforms.
  • Technology companies building AI operations (AIOps) platforms that require a unified database for telemetry, logs, and vector embeddings.
  • Organizations with IoT deployments that need to ingest and query millions of events per second from distributed edge devices.

Publicly disclosed clients

  • ABB
  • ALPLA
  • Bitmovin
  • NBCUniversal
  • Rauch
  • Skyhive
  • TGW Logistics
  • Turvo

Strengths and what to watch

Strengths

  • CrateDB's ability to handle time-series, full-text, geospatial, and vector data in a single SQL engine reduces architectural complexity for organizations managing diverse operational data types.
  • The open-source Apache 2.0 license and PostgreSQL wire protocol compatibility lower adoption barriers and allow deployment flexibility across cloud, on-premises, and edge environments.
  • The product's horizontal scale-out architecture and columnar storage enable sub-second query responses on billions of rows without requiring pre-aggregation or schema redesign.

Watch for

  • Crate.io has not disclosed any funding rounds since its $11 million Series A in 2018, raising questions about its financial runway and ability to compete with well-capitalized rivals like InfluxDB and TimescaleDB.
  • The company's customer concentration appears skewed toward industrial and logistics verticals, which may expose it to cyclical downturns in manufacturing and supply chain spending.
  • CrateDB's positioning as a unified analytics database for AI operations is a relatively new pivot, and it remains unproven at scale against specialized vector databases like Pinecone or Milvus.

Key Information

Industry
NoSQL Databases
Founded
2013

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CrateDB and what is it used for?

CrateDB is an open-source distributed SQL database for real-time analytics on high-volume operational data. It ingests millions of events per second from IoT sensors, Kafka streams, or logs and makes data immediately queryable without pre-aggregation or ETL.

How does CrateDB handle different data types?

CrateDB supports time-series, JSON, full-text, vector embeddings, and geospatial data within a single engine. This reduces architectural complexity for organizations managing diverse operational data types, allowing them to query all data using standard SQL without needing multiple specialized databases.

What funding has Crate.io raised and from whom?

Crate.io raised at least $11 million in a Series A round announced in June 2018, led by Draper Esprit, now Molten Ventures. No subsequent funding rounds have been publicly disclosed, and the company's financial trajectory beyond that point is not documented.

Who are some notable customers of Crate.io?

Notable customers include industrial and logistics firms ABB, ALPLA, and TGW Logistics, as well as media and technology companies like NBCUniversal and Bitmovin. These clients use CrateDB for real-time analytics on sensor data, supply chain events, and streaming platform metrics.

How does CrateDB compare to other time-series databases?

CrateDB competes with InfluxDB and TimescaleDB, but differentiates by handling time-series, full-text, geospatial, and vector data in a single SQL engine. Its horizontal scale-out and columnar storage enable sub-second queries on billions of rows without pre-aggregation.

What is CrateDB's role in AI operations?

CrateDB is positioned as a unified store for telemetry, maintenance documents, and vector embeddings for AI workloads. This pivot targets AIOps platforms, though it remains unproven at scale against specialized vector databases like Pinecone or Milvus.

Sources

  1. crate.io — Company product description, feature set, customer logos (ABB, ALPLA, Bitmovin, NBCUniversal, Rauch, Skyhive, TGW Logistics, Turvo), and use cases (industrial analytics, AI operations, application analytics).
  2. techcrunch.com — Series A funding of $11 million led by Draper Esprit, TechCrunch Disrupt Europe 2014 Startup Battlefield win, and launch of hosted IoT data platform.
  3. growjo.com — Attempted to fetch revenue data but returned a 502 error; no revenue data available from this source.
  4. finance.yahoo.com — Attempted to fetch Crate.io earnings but returned a general Yahoo Finance earnings page; no Crate.io-specific data found.