Bauplan raises $7.5M to automate data infrastructure as code for AI software developers
Summary
Serverless data platform startup Bauplan Inc. wants to help software developers automate their big data infrastructure with code after raising $7.5 million in seed funding today.The round was led by Innovation Endeavors and saw participation from angel investors such as the renowned software developers Wes McKinney and Aditya Agarwal, plus the data scientist Chris Re.The startup has developed a serverless runtime thats uniquely able to process large object storage-based datasets using commands written in the Python programming language. It enables developers to build powerful applications, including artificial intelligence-based apps, by using simple Python functions and familiar Git-style concepts such as branch, commit and merge.With Bauplan, developers can use Python functions to spin up large-scale data pipelines and gits-for-data across any S3-compatible data lake. Its platform is based on Python, one of the most popular and widely known programming languages, in order to free developers from the need to learn Spark or Structured Query Language.Bauplan co-founder and Chief Executive Ciro Greco (pictured, center, alongside co-founders Jacopo Tagliabue and Mattia Pavoni) said todays data landscape looks a lot like the DevOps world did 10 years ago.Back then, infrastructure-as-code allowed all kinds of developers to automate a lot of stuff, and data is now going through the same process today, Greco said. By removing the complexity of Spark and Kubernetes, it enables developers to build and deploy AI applications through Python-native workflows, accelerating delivery wile ensuring governance and repeatability.Bauplan said its platform is designed for medium-to-large enterprises working on data-intensive applications in industries such as financial services, healthcare, business-to-business software and media. One of its early adopters is the Dutch media and communications firm MFE MediaForEurope N.V., which is focused on free-to-air and pay-TV production and distribution across multiple content platforms.As a media organization dealing with thousands of different types of content and dozens of distribution platforms, MFE-MediaForEurope has long been accustomed to dealing with data infrastructure-related headaches, said Fabio Melen, the companys head of data technology.