AUSTIN, Texas, June 19, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- data.world today announced that it has acquired Capsenta to enable businesses to securely access, view, and work with on-premises databases in the cloud. Capsenta's patented knowledge graph virtualization and modeling technologies create online, business-friendly views of complex data. Teams can now access a single, aligned view of cloud and on-premises data so more of the organization can understand and immediately use it to power better decisions.
The combination of data.world’s modern knowledge graph-based data catalog and consumer-grade UI with Capsenta’s technologies enables enterprises to enter the new era of cloud data management which empowers business users to directly access and analyze their data without extensive IT involvement. Together, these graph technologies enable enterprises to securely leverage the substantial value of their distributed non-cloud data assets in the cloud.
“Enterprise data management and analysis is operating across two different paradigms—cloud and on-premises—and for Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies, it’s going to be a hybrid world for a long time,” said Brett Hurt, co-founder and CEO of data.world. “So I’m very excited about this acquisition because it brings to data.world capabilities that are critical to our enterprise customers, and helps us connect these two worlds together in ways that deliver the benefits of cloud migration while leveraging the value of existing infrastructure investments and on-prem data.”
Capsenta was spun-out of The University of Texas at Austin (UT-Austin) and commercialized in 2015. Capsenta’s virtualization product is the result of Dr. Juan Sequeda and Professor Daniel Miranker’s research. Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Technical Sales and Research Dr. Juan Sequeda, PhD will join data.world as Principal Scientist. CEO Wayne Heideman will stay on to manage Capsenta products internally and will serve as data.world’s General Manager of Capsenta. Co-founder Prof. Daniel Miranker, PhD, will advise data.world while continuing his research and teaching career of over 30 years at UT-Austin.
Capsenta brings to data.world its data integration software Ultrawrap™ and its real-time, collaborative, knowledge graph schema modeling tool Gra.fo. In addition, Capsenta’s three issued patents brings the data.world issued patent portfolio to a total of ten with several additional patent applications in process.
“Our research started over a decade ago by asking a basic question—what does it mean to combine relational database and semantic web technology? The outcome was a series of theoretical and systems results which were productized in Capsenta. The solutions we ultimately arrived at, combined with our compliance experience with highly-regulated clients, is a really nice match for data.world and Capsenta customers,” said Dr. Sequeda. “We’re all excited to bring our technology to a whole new audience with a company that’s so dedicated to building truly data-driven cultures.”
“This is a huge win for Austin and for the University of Texas,” said Joshua Baer, founder of Capital Factory. “This is a homegrown success story that touches every part of the Austin startup ecosystem. Juan Sequeda has been a startup community leader for the past decade and his Semantic Web meetup was one of the first to meet regularly at Capital Factory. I’m proud to have been an investor in data.world since day one.”
“The University of Texas at Austin has its fingerprints all over the acquisition of Capsenta by data.world,” said Professor of Innovation Bob Metcalfe. “Several years ago Computer Science Professor Daniel Miranker started talking about exciting work with his graduate student Juan Sequeda. They were bringing stores of existing on-premises data, much of it relational, onto the Web by wrapping it in Tim Berners-Lee’s Semantic Web and wanted to commercialize it. So UT-Austin released that intellectual property to them and they went on to form Capsenta with it. With data.world building knowledge graphs for their customers in the cloud and Capsenta making on-premises customer data available via the Semantic Web, they have a perfect match."
“As an investor in both companies, we are delighted to see the technology platform developed by Capsenta help achieve data.world’s mission to create the most meaningful, collaborative, and abundant data resource in the world,” said Venu Shamapant, Founding Partner at LiveOak Venture Partners.
