Powered by GPUs, Real-Time Data Startup MapD Lands $25M Funding Round

Just a few years ago, MapD had a radical idea: Use GPUs to turn data into insights, quick. The result was a jaw-dropping demo. And a pitch that won the then-tiny startup a $100,000 check — awarded on the spot — at our Early Stage Challenge in March 2014. Almost three years to the day later, MapD has closed a $25 million series B funding round. Now a 30-person dynamo, the San Francisco-based startup plans to accelerate its growth as some of the world’s largest companies put GPUs to work on their toughest business problems. It takes only a moment for Todd Mostak — a Harvard-trained expert in Middle Eastern politics who founded MapD while doing a fellowship in AI at MIT — to reel off the opportunities. The data warehousing market is worth $30 billion. Business intelligence and visual analytics are another $20 billion. And the size of the emerging AI market looks ”humongous.”